67 percent sure
by Eowima
Summary: "I am Spider-man. And I really messed up." "Wait, you're being serious right now? You're not joking with me like, you're a 100% serious 'cause it's not funny." "I'm not joking." "I was only like, 67% sure..." "MJ..." Or the story of how MJ determined that there was a 67% chance that Peter was actually Spider-man. [Based on MCU Spider-Man] NOW COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

_Hello everyone! _

_This fic is based on MJ's line in _Far From Home_ when Peter admits to her that he is Spider-Man. She says that she was only 67% sure, and it made me wonder how she reached that percentage. So here we are!_

_Hope you'll enjoy this first chapter! I'll post the second one at the same time because they kind of go together, then I'll post the rest later. _

* * *

67% sure

She starts noticing him at the beginning of their Sophomore year, in Academic Decathlon Practice. Peter Parker is mostly shy and awkward, and stupid Eugene Thompson keeps making fun of him, but he's also surprisingly smart. The smartest one of them, excluding her of course. Mr Harrington is pretty excited as soon as he realizes what a valuable asset he is to the team – and he even grabs the attention of Liz Toomes, even though he doesn't realize it and keeps acting like a dork around her. His friend Edward Leeds is quite smart too, but they both are huge nerds so nobody gives them the attention they should probably get. Whenever MJ passes them by in the halls, she can hear them talk non stop about Star Wars or computers, oblivious to everyone around looking at them like they're growing disgusting antennas on their foreheads or something.

People in high school are so freaking stupid.

Leeds and Parker don't seem to care about that though – or maybe they don't even realize it – because they keep doing whatever they do that makes them happy. And that's something MJ clearly respects.

She kind of wishes she'd have the guts to talk to him and get to know him, but obviously she doesn't. So she watches from a distance, hiding behind her books like she always does. At some point though, she gathers the courage one crappy Monday to sit at the far end of their usual table during lunch. And even though she doesn't talk to them – and even gives them the middle finger without even taking her eyes off of her book when they try to engage conversation with her – she's still proud of herself for that. It then becomes a habit. She sits at the same table every day, they don't talk to her and she reads her book in peace. It takes Parker a couple of days to finally get that she does _not_ want to talk to them at all, and after that all he does is nod politely at her when she sits and that's it.

That stupid boy is so nice he can't even properly ignore someone who wants to be ignored.

She still appreciates it though. Despite herself really. He is growing on her faster than anyone before, and it troubles her a little to be honest. So she ignores it. She still sits next to them every day though, and when times get rough, Peter's little nod to her at lunchtime becomes the highlight of her day.

One day, early November, they go on a field trip to Oscorp. MJ sits behind Parker and Leeds in the bus, and listen to them rambling like huge nerds about how excited they are. At some point she coughs under her breath '_losers_' and Peter turns on his seat to look at her with a frown. She ignores him, faking to be lost deep into her book, her heart beating a little too fast to her taste. When he finally turns away, she closes her eyes for a second, a little overwhelmed and very annoyed at herself. She decides for her sake to stay away from them during the whole visit, up until she realizes that Peter is gone. She asks Ned about it and he tells her he said he had to go to the bathroom or something. He reappears right at the end of the visit and she watches him curiously. He seems very agitated, but convinces Ned that everything's fine while they're waiting for the bus to get back to Midtown. When it gets her, MJ sits behind them again but they stay silent the entire ride, which is pretty unusual for these two.

The following day, he doesn't show up at school. Then it's the weekend, and she doesn't see him until Monday morning before first period. She is in the still empty hallway, reading while walking, a technique she has perfectly mastered over the years. She usually never gets run into, but this morning she does. Someone crashes into her so hard her book falls flat on the floor and she almost does the same before said someone grabs her by the arm and helps her regain her balance. She looks up, shocked, and meets huge brown eyes that can only belong to one person.

"Crap, sorry Michelle," Peter exclaims, still holding her arm. She stares at him without a word and he gulps awkwardly before letting go of her and scratching the back of his neck with a nervous laugh. "I didn't see you there I'm so sorry I – here, here's your book." He grabs it from the floor and hands it to her. She narrows her eyes at him, her mind racing.

She's almost entirely sure she used to be taller than him. Now their eyes are almost at the same level, which is weird because yes, puberty is an erratic science, but nobody's ever grown up 2 inches in _three_ _days_. He seems overall a lot more muscular than usual, too. Not that she's ever looked at his body, _ew_ no, absolutely not. But he seems less skinny today, his biceps are filling his regular hoodie when he usually looks like he's swimming in it. She kind of hates that she's picking up on those details. She is _not_ someone that gives importance to someone's physique _at all_.

Peter is looking at her all nervous now, and that is actually something ordinary. God he is such a dork. "Whatever, Parker." she tells him coldly and walks away without another look. She can hear him let out a little sigh of relief, which brings up a small smile on her lips. What an idiot. The whole day she observes him from behind her current book, and the more she does the more she realizes how different he looks. It's not just his appearance, too. He seems even more restless and energetic than usual, and somehow less dorky and more confident, too. She even catches him talk back to Flash during lunch break, which is definitely something that _never_ happens.

But nobody seems to notice it though, not even Ned who is still acting like the huge nerd he is. He doesn't even realize that Peter is not paying as much attention to his Star Wars ramble as he usually is. MJ notices though. She seems to be the only one.

The week goes by and Peter continues to act weird – and everybody else continues not to pay attention. On Tuesday, in Chemistry Class, something suddenly blows up, setting off the fire alarm and forcing everyone to run outside. MJ is pretty sure the explosion came from Parker's desk – he seems to be covered in something white and sticky, which Flash immediately makes fun of him for, obviously. He doesn't talk back this time though, and once the firefighters are done and they can get back to class, he disappears for a moment and comes back with a fresh set of clothes and a pitiful expression plastered on his face.

On Wednesday, he manages to outrun Flash and various other monkey friends of his, after catching the football they were trying to launch at his head and throwing it so hard it goes over the fence of the field and onto the street.

On Thursday, she hears him complain about how loud the cafeteria is. She notices it to be out of the ordinary because she has never heard him protest about anything really. He usually never complains about anything, but while Ned is laughing at him a bit because 'It's been pretty much the same since forever', MJ scans his face and body language and perceives that he is actually physically uncomfortable because of it. Which is weird, because like Ned said, the cafeteria is always loud like this.

On Friday, she notices him fiddling in his desk drawer during Chemistry Class again, so she decides to corner him after lunch. She waits for Ned to go to the bathroom then she walks to Peter and stops in front of him, with her arms crossed over her chest and a curious glare.

"You OK there, Parker?" she asks him casually, narrowing her eyes at him.

He had been looking over at the table where Liz sits with her friends, and he blinks a couple of time before looking at MJ. "Hum, what are you– uh?"

MJ shakes her head with a roll of eyes. "What are you looking at her for?"

"What? I'm not, I'm not looking at anyone, I mean, what are you talking about?" he stammers like the huge dork he is.

"You've been acting weird all week." she tells him, trying to meet his eyes but he is now clearly avoiding hers.

"I don't know what you're talking about." he says with a shrug. "Sorry, I have to get to class, bye."

After that she's a bit mad at him. She avoids him for the rest of the day, even though she realizes that it must not make a huge difference to him really since they're not even friends. She goes home then, and spends her entire weekend pissed off. Until Sunday night, that is. She has dinner with her parents when the topic suddenly comes by.

"I heard Ben Parker died yesterday." her dad says to her mom, just like that. "Bullet to the chest, some thief ran into him and he refused to let him go. His kid was with him, from what I've been told."

"Oh no, it's that Peter boy, Michelle honey, isn't he in some of your classes?"

At that moment it feels like someone just stepped right onto her heart. She excuses herself and goes back to her room, incapable of eating or saying anything else. She grabs her phone, and it's all over the news. A man murdered in broad daylight in front of his nephew's helpless eyes. She's never met Ben Parker, but she's heard Peter talk a lot about him to Ned, and it was clear just from that how much he loved him. There's a picture of him in one of the articles, and it's been a very long time but suddenly she feels like she has to. She grabs a notebook and a pencil, and slowly she lets her hand shape Ben Parker's smiling face onto the paper. Once she's done, she tears off the page and puts it in her Chemistry book. She wipes off the tear that's been so close to fall since she started drawing. Then she goes to bed.

Unsurprisingly, Peter is not at school the next day. He doesn't show up until the next Thursday. He doesn't look like Peter anymore. He seems exhausted, his eyes are red and his movements feverish. Ned stands by his side the whole day, daring anyone to come and mess with him. But even stupid Flash is sensible enough to leave Peter alone. MJ's drawing is still in her Chemistry book, but she can't seem to get the nerves to give it to him. She's been drawing again. Like she always did a couple of years back. People in crisis.

Peter Parker.

His pain is so clear and visible, she hurts just looking at him. So she draws. Her new notebook is covered in drawings of him. To try and express this pain he is feeling, and to get away from it as it seems to completely crush her own heart.

It's been two weeks now, and she finally gathers enough courage to give him the drawing of Ben. Not in person though. She slips it inside his locker at the end of the day, then goes back home. The next day, when she sits at their table for lunch, Peter politely nods at her before focusing on his food. He hadn't done in ages, it seems. For a while, he didn't even come to lunch at all. When lunchtime is over, Ned and him both stand up but Peter tells his friend to go without him, that he has to do something first. MJ looks at him from the corner of her eyes, curious.

When he starts walking in her direction, his gaze fixed on her, she closes her book and stands up to face him, her heart beating a little too hard in her chest. They look at each other for a moment, then he reaches out and grasps her hand in his for a split second. His jaws are clenched as he whispers in a choked voice: "Thank you."

Somehow she knows he's talking about the drawing, even though she has no idea how he knows she's the one who did it. She just nods to him and he turns away and leaves without another word, his shoulders strained as he makes his way out of the cafeteria. MJ sits back down on her chair, somehow exhausted but relieved. If he is thanking her, maybe it means that it might have helped him, even just a little. She hopes so. Oh God, she really does.

Months go by, and with every little minute of every little day, Peter seems to get better. He still looks like crap most of the time, and keeps falling asleep in almost every class, but he gets better. One day during lunchtime, roughly two months after the death of his uncle, MJ hears him laugh out loud at one of Ned's joke. Her heart seems to jolt in her chest at this sound, and she meets Ned's delighted – and relieved – gaze right after. She smiles to him and he smiles back, and for a second they share the relief that Peter is finally starting to come back.

There are crappy days of course, but he still keeps his head up. Flash starts bullying him again – even though it is less violent and less frequent than before –, teachers start giving him a bad time when they catch him sleeping, and Peter slowly becomes Peter again. MJ can't help but smile anytime she hears him talk passionately about nerd stuff with Ned in the hallways. Days are getting hotter now, and the end of the school year is getting close. There's talk about a new super-hero around Queens, and for a couple of weeks that's all anyone seems to be talking about. Even MJ finally watches a video of the masked man stopping a car from hitting a bus full of kids with his bare hands.

"So what do you guys think about that Spider-man guy?" she asks Leeds and Parker one day. Like every time she engages conversation with them, they look at each other in shock before answering, which makes her laugh inside. Idiots.

"He is _so_ cool," Ned says with the enthusiasm she expected of him. "Did you see how he caught that thief last week and hang him up by the foot to that street lamp? That was _sick_!"

MJ turns to Peter and narrows her eyes at him. "What about you Parker? Aren't you fangirling about him too?"

"What? Hey hum, I don't know, I guess he's cool and all but–"

"Right." She cuts him, looking suspicious just to mess with him – which works perfectly of course. "Gotta go, I guess I'll see you losers around, bye!" And she leaves, laughing to herself as she hears Ned start rambling about the Spider dude like he always does about anything he finds remotely interesting. Peter's lack of interest kind of makes her curious though, since she can't really explain it. It's no secret to anyone that he almost has a freaking crush on Iron Man.

A couple of weeks passes, and then Peter doesn't show up at school one Friday. The Monday morning after she finds him fast asleep on a bench outside of Midtown. He has tangled the straps of his bag to his feet and his head is tilted to the side in a way that hurts her own neck just by looking. His mouth is half open and MJ can't keep herself from peaking to try and see if he's drooling or not. As she gets closer, she realizes that he has a black eye, almost completely healed but still apparent to someone who pays attention. She must admit it surprises her a great deal. Peter is not one to get into fights. As this thought crosses her mind, she catches sight of Flash's car parking not that far from them and she decides to take action.

"Dude." she says, sitting next to him and nudging him in the ribs to wake him up. If Thompson sees him like this, he is never going to hear the end of it. Peter doesn't move though, so she nudges him again, harder this time. It works better than she had imagined.

Peter jumps out of his sleep, literally, onto the backrest of the bench where he crouches in a weird position just as if he was getting ready to defend himself. "What, what, where am I?" he stammers, his eyes still full of sleep, his hair an absolute mess. Then he meets her gaze and suddenly seems to take in his surroundings. He sits back properly on the bench and smiles nervously at her: "Oh, hi Michelle."

"What's up, Penis Parker?" Flash says as he walks by their bench. Peter doesn't say anything and just scratches his forehead, probably trying to hide his black eye from him.

"You're welcome," MJ tells him, standing up and folding her arms.

"Uh, what?"

"If he'd seen you sleeping like that you'd never have heard the end of it." she says, shrugging. "So yeah, you're welcome, Parker."

"Oh, hum, well thank you then?" he says timidly, untying his feet from the straps of his bag and standing up as well. He raises a hand and tries to tame his unruly hair for a second.

"Like that's going to work," she laughs at him, and he lets out a little smile despite himself. Somehow they start walking together in the same direction, and MJ is painfully aware of how this never usually happens. She feels a little nervous so she decides to question him to avoid thinking about it. "Rough weekend?" she asks, nodding to his eye.

"Hum, yeah, yeah kinda." Peter nods with yet another shy smile.

"What happened to you?"

"I uh, got into a fight I guess," he says after a second of hesitation.

"Really? With whom?"

"I, hum, someone from Brooklyn, you don't know him."

"Really?" she says, raising an eyebrow at him. "I didn't pin you for the fighting type, Parker."

"You'd be surprised," he says with a chuckle, then his eyes widen and he quickly changes the subject: "So anyway, what about you? What did you do this weekend?"

"Nothing much really, I mostly read." MJ shrugs, curiosity spreading in her brain from the fact that he seems to be hiding something.

"Makes sense."

She turns to look at him with narrowing eyes and he has the decency to smile shamefully. She kind of wishes she could question him more about that 'fight' but she has to get to class. "That's me," she says, nodding to her classroom door. "I'll see you later, Parker."

"See you later, _Jones_." he retorts playfully and she ignores him completely.

At lunch that day, she does as usual and sits at the far end of their table. Parker and Leeds are so deep in their conversation that none of them actually realize she's here though. She opens her book and listens curiously to what they're saying. Something about Iron Man and Captain America fighting in an airport or something. She frowns, wondering what that's all about, since those dudes are supposed to be the good guys. Then Ned says something that catches her attention:

"Anyway, dude, what happened to you, why weren't you there Friday?"

"I got busy I guess, I got uh… okay, don't tell anyone yet, but I got offered an internship at Stark Industries," Peter says quietly.

"What?! Dude, that's _sick_!"

"I know, I'm pretty excited," he says, and MJ can hear in his voice that it's true. "This summer's gonna be great, I can't wait to get started!"

* * *

_Thanks for reading, please leave a comment to tell me what you think!_


	2. Chapter 2

_This second chapter goes with the first one, I wrote them as one initially but it got too long so I cut it in two. _

_Hope you'll enjoy it!_

* * *

67% sure

Her summer is painfully _boring_. She spends most of it in the library to read more and more books. She figures that by the end of summer she'll have read them all. Probably. One very hot day, she catches a glimpse of Spider-man as he swings by above her head. He's been more and more active since summer started, people call him Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man now. He mostly operates in Queens from what she's heard, but sometimes he's seen in Manhattan and Brooklyn, too. MJ loves herself a good mystery but this guy is good at keeping secrets, nobody seems to know who he is. She likes this about him. He's not like the other supers all looking for fame and stuff. He's just protecting the little guys. She knows that's what makes him quite popular around here.

Then September barges in and suddenly school starts again. It's weird, but MJ feels somehow happy to be back. _Ew_, how is that even possible. The first day she lays eyes on Parker she notices something different. He seems more focused and confident. She wonders if it's the Stark internship that did that to him. If so then maybe it's going to teach him how to stand up to Eugene Jerk Thompson. Doesn't seem like it though. She wishes again she'd have the guts to try and really be friends with him. But she quickly realizes he only has eyes for Liz Toomes. Not that she would want him to look at her the way he does with Liz. He's practically drooling over her, it's pathetic really.

A week goes by, and she notices slight changes about him. For starters, he's quit marching band _and_ robotics lab. Which only leaves Academic Decathlon, and even that he's trying to get out of. They're supposed to go to DC for the national competition mid September, but one day during practice he tells Mr Harrington that he's not going to be able to come.

"I can't go to Washington because if Mr Stark needs me then I have to make sure that I am here."

"You've never even been in the same room as Tony Stark," Flash interjects annoyingly.

People then start to freak out because clearly they all know he's the best of them. Before she can stop herself, MJ says matter-of-factly: "He's already quit marching band and robotics lab." She then realizes everyone is now looking at her and she adds coldly, "I'm not obsessed with him, I'm just very observant."

It doesn't matter anyway. Peter's mind seems made up so Liz appoints Flash as his replacement and things are – mostly – settled. Apart from his lack of interest in extra-curricular activities, MJ has noticed something else out of the ordinary from Parker. Last year, he always spent time with Ned at school after class, but since the beginning of the school year, he's been running out as soon as the bell rings the end of his last period. She wonders where he's going all afternoon, but she can't really figure it out without following him and that's something she's not willing to do just yet. Everyone is entitled to their privacy.

Then, one day, as they're watching some stupid Captain America fitness program in gym class, she overhears Ned muttering something intriguing under his breath: "Do you know him too?"

"Yeah we met." Peter answers quietly. "I stole his shield."

MJ narrows her eyes, wondering what that's all about. Twenty minutes later, Ned screams out that Peter knows Spider-man, and MJ witnesses as Liz invites both of them to her party that night. From the hopeful look on his stupid face, MJ decides that she should probably go too, curious as if Parker really does know Spider-man or if Ned was just being a huge dork.

It is not like her to go to a party, but her mind's made up so she just acts confident once she arrives even though she doesn't feel much like it. She wanders around aimlessly in Liz's parents' freaking mansion, waiting for _something_, and it's not until Leeds and Parker arrive that she realize she had been waiting for them – for one of them, at least. It embarrasses her to even think about it.

They're muttering to each other in the house's hallway and she swoops in like she usually does. "I can't believe you guys are at this lame party." she says casually, spreading something on a piece of toast.

Ned narrows his eyes at her and points out: "You're here too."

"Am I?" she retorts, raising an eyebrow at them. Peter is not paying the slightest attention to her though. Liz comes by and greets them, and he is all eyes for her, which annoys MJ a great deal. She doesn't stick around for long after that. Right before she leaves, she sees Ned standing all alone looking at his watch, and she wonders where Parker is. Some part of her really wishes he's not with Liz, but she tries to keep that part quiet because it's embarrassing really. She will _not_ catch feelings for stupid Peter Parker.

The next morning it's all over the local news. Spider-man destroyed some stuff in the suburbs, exactly around where Liz lives with her parents. MJ can't decide what to think about that. Is that a coincidence, or is Spider-man someone from Midtown? After all, he's never been seen in the suburbs before last night, which is weird. But if it _is_ someone from Midtown, who could it be?

Her mind quickly goes to Peter, and she doesn't know if it's only because she's been a bit _drawn_ to him lately or if there is actually a reasonable probability that he might be Spider-man. But it's stupid, and not at all an effective procedure if she wants to figure out who's behind that mask. First she has to lay down everything she knows about 'Spidey', then she can make hypothesis.

It's research time.

From what she knows, he has been around for roughly 9 months now. She finds the first accounts of a masked vigilante in Queens dating back to December 2015, online of course. She even finds a blurry picture of him from January 2016 in a local newspaper. The article states that an unknown masked individual helped out a little girl who had been stuck in a tree. He doesn't seem to have the same suit he does now, but MJ is pretty sure it _is_ Spider-man. She looks around for hours to find everything she can about him. There are tons of videos of him now, the first one dating back to May, the last one from a couple of days ago. He's been very active during summer it seems, with at least two videos posted a week, but since the beginning of September, not so much.

MJ also finds out that there have been sightings of him in _Berlin_. It somehow doesn't make any sense at first, then she finds an article about the destruction of the Leipzig Halle Airport during that whole Captain America fiasco with the Sokovia Accords, back in June. The article makes mention of the super-heroes that were allegedly there, including a 'masked man wearing a red and blue spandex suit'. MJ goes back to the videos of Spider-man and notices that in the ones posted before June 10th, he was wearing a crappy costume, and after that, he seemed to get the upgraded one everyone knows now. She wonders if it is Tony Stark's doing or not.

That thought brings her back to Peter. Back in June, at the exact same time, he missed a couple of days of school, then came back on Monday with a black eye and the news that he'd been granted a Stark internship. Coincidence or not, she can't say. Too bad he is not coming to DC. It would have been easy to keep an eye on him and see if he was indeed hiding something or not.

"Hey, it's Peter!"

MJ doesn't look up her book but she holds her breath a second, listening intently.

"Hey guys, yeah, I was hoping maybe I could… rejoin the team?"

That is not going to please Thompson, MJ thinks. Sure enough he immediately starts crying angrily at Parker: "No, no way, you can't just quit on us, stroll up and be welcome back by everyone!"

Everyone else seems to disagree though, especially Mr Harrington, who gives Peter his place back and appoints Flash back to first alternate. He starts to protest, of course, and MJ decides to swoop in just to save him the embarrassment. "Excuse-me, can we go already? 'Cause I was hoping to get some light protesting in front of one of the embassies before dinner so…"

"Protesting is patriotic," Mr Harrington nods, "let's get in the bus!"

And they leave. MJ sits behind Parker, while Ned decides to go all the way back, which is unusual. Liz makes them work hard the entire 4-hour drive to DC, but like most of the time, MJ just dodges practice and reads instead. At some point, Peter gets a call and takes it to the back of the bus. He is too far for her to hear anything but he seems a bit more jumpy when he comes back to his seat.

She can't keep herself from wondering over and over if he _is_ Spider-man or not. But it doesn't make any sense, how would a teenager get powers like that? And choose to help people and conceal his identity? It is so unlikely. She needs more proof before she makes up her mind. She has a sort of gut feeling about it but she knows it is not enough. After all she has a very scientific mind, and you don't make scientific discoveries solely based on gut feelings.

The field trip in DC can be divided in two parts. First their first night there and the Decathlon in itself. Then the aftermath.

On that evening, everybody slips out of their rooms to go to the swimming pool of the hotel they're staying at. MJ joins, even though she just reads while the others behave like idiots in the water. Parker is not there, and neither is Leeds. She's a bit disappointed that he's not around for her to keep an eye on him.

The morning after, Peter is nowhere to be seen. Ned tells them he is sick and that he can't come, and although everyone is disappointed, they don't have time to dwell on that. This is a big deal for most of them, and MJ finds it disturbing that Peter doesn't have more consideration for it. It goes well though, even without him. MJ gives the last good answer when they enter sudden death, and suddenly everybody is hugging her and they win the whole thing.

And it feels good. She's been thinking for ever that she doesn't have any friends, but at this moment she realizes she actually has. Or at least, she is part of a group of people that appreciate what she has to offer.

It's nice.

Mr Harrington brings them across the street to visit the Washington Monument before they go back home. MJ stays behind while the others all go inside, and her teacher takes a second to talk to her.

"Taking it all in, Michelle?"

"Oh yeah hum, I don't really want to celebrate something that was built by slaves."

"Oh I'm sure the Washington Monument wasn't built by –" he stops as a security guard actually nods to him like, 'yeah dude'. "OK, enjoy your book."

"Thanks." she smiles as he goes after the rest of the group. She sits down and quietly enjoys her book for a moment.

That's when the second part of their trip starts. A sudden explosion rattles the top of the tower, reverberating through it until ground level. MJ looks up, and so does everyone around her. Debris fall to the ground and people start screaming. And there he is. She sees him stop, she hears his voice, he seems distraught.

"Oh no no no, Karen what's going on up there?!" His voice is familiar, but MJ doesn't notice it right then.

Ned and the others are in that elevator.

MJ stands straight up and points her finger to the top of the monument, an awful fear weaving its way into her heart. "My friends are up there!"

"What?!" Spider-man immediately turns to her, then with a deeper voice assures: "Uh don't worry m'am everything's gonna be OK!" And just like that, she watches as he jumps on the monument and starts climbing it.

It's terrifying. In the spur of the moment, she doesn't even register how weird it is that Spider-man is actually there. All she can think about is "_please, please save my friends._"

He's finally reached the top of the monument, and is now trying to enter through one of the small windows there. MJ's neck hurts from looking up. Two helicopters are circling in the sky, ordering him to stop. How dumb can they be? Can't they see he is trying to help? He then does something that proves that he is actually really smart. He had been trying to break through the window, creating more momentum thanks to his webs, but without much of a chance since the glass is probably very thick. So he gets to the top of the monument, jumps over one of the helicopter, then swings onto the window and gets through it easily.

The next few minutes are excruciating. There is no way to know what's going on inside the monument. Then the word starts to spread that Spider-man saved everyone, and MJ lets out a huge sigh of relief. He did it. Whoever it is did it.

It takes a couple of hours to get everyone back to the ground since the elevator is completely ruined. Nobody knows what happened exactly. At some point, Peter appears next to her, his eyes wide with shock, his hair an absolute mess.

"Holy shit what happened here, is everyone OK?" he asks her, and he seems a little out of breath for some reason.

MJ narrows her eyes at him then shrugs. "There was an explosion or something. Your pal Spider-man saved everyone."

"Wow, that's –"

"Ned and the others were up there when it happened," she cuts him, eyeing his reaction. "They got lucky Spidey was around here, I wonder what he's doing in DC."

Nothing changes in his expression, but she could swear she sees the slightest shift in his eyes before he looks at her with a small shrug: "No idea, but yeah, that was… fortunate."

"Thought you knew him."

"Hum, yeah I do but uh, yeah we're not that close you know so…"

"Right." They stay silent for a couple of minutes. Peter seems a bit nervous after a while, and MJ can't help herself and stars to mess with him just a smidge. "So anyways, you don't look sick."

He looks at her with wide eyes and she smirks. "Um, um, yeah I um, I feel much better now I –"

"Don't sweat it Parker," she cuts him with a dismissive hand gesture. "I don't care that you weren't there for the Decathlon. We managed to win anyway so yeah. But everyone else is pissed." He suddenly looks miserable and somehow she feels bad so she adds with another shrug: "Well at least they _were_, before you know, they almost died and everything."

They don't talk much after that. They wait for the others to be safely back on the ground and then the medics make sure everyone is OK, and then they head back home. Like she predicted, everybody is so relieved to actually be alive that no one gives Peter a hard time because he didn't show up for the Decathlon.

The next day though, she inexplicably finds him in Detention. She never gets detention herself, but she likes to come down there to sketch people in crisis from time to time. Coach Wilson is a very good subject. She likes to pinpoint exactly what's going on inside people's head and add it on her drawing. The coach's line would probably be something along the line of 'Who am I?' or something. That's what she's trying to decide when she notices how restless Peter seems to be today. His shoulders are tensed, his fists clenched on the table. It doesn't surprise MJ much when he suddenly storms out of the room without a look back. He is _definitely_ hiding something.

If only she knew what exactly.

Then something changes. There's this huge thing with the Staten Island Ferry accident involving some crazy flying criminal, Spider-man _and_ Iron Man. That's all there is on the news the entire weekend. On Monday afternoon, she finds Peter in detention again. It's been ages since she's last drawn him – since his uncle's death, actually. She feels comfortable drawing him again, but can't figure out what to write inside that little bubble over his head. So she just darkens it with her pencil, before showing it to him with a sad pout.

He feels lighter though, in a way. He stops falling asleep in class, and seems to spend more time with Ned doing nerd stuff. Somehow he manages to ask Liz out for the Homecoming too – MJ hears Flash complain about it – and suddenly his smiles are bigger than she's seen them since his uncle past away. And it's a bittersweet feeling for her, but she still manages to feel happy for him, though.

He's been through a lot. He deserves that.

She shows up at the Homecoming dance, intending to have fun. She even puts on that yellow flowery dress her mother bought her a couple of months ago, and she's glad she does because it feels nice to get all dressed up to go have fun with people. She sticks with Ned, Abraham, Charles and Sally from Decathlon practice, and they do have fun for a while, dancing like idiots and laughing at each other. It's the first time it's happened to her, but ever since they won the Decathlon she actually feels like she belongs with these guys. Most of them are weird and socially awkward – and huge nerds, too – but she really enjoys being with them, even though she doesn't feel comfortable enough yet to show it much.

Maybe she will, one day.

At some point, Liz appears on the dance floor, and everybody swoons over how nice she looks in her pink dress. MJ can't help herself and looks around for Peter. She sees him behind the glass door roughly five minutes later. Ned waves to him happily, and she greets him with a middle finger and a smirk, as usual. He looks nice, all groomed in his suit, his hair combed back, a white flower pinned to his vest. Then he gets inside and finally she _sees_ him.

She's never seen his face like that. It's a pure mask of shock and _fear_.

He walks across the dance floor right to where Liz and her friends are. They exchange a few words, Liz looking at him with surprise, and then he runs away. MJ watches as he does, her arms folded over her chest, wondering where he's going. Then Ned disappears too after a little while, and it becomes so clear that these two nerds are hiding something.

MJ stays with the others for a while, then she says she has to go to the bathroom and she finds herself in the hallway Peter disappeared in. There's a tie on the floor and she picks it up, wondering if it's his. Then she hears Mrs Warren's voice inside the computer room and she hides behind some lockers to see what's going on.

A few seconds later, Ned comes out of the class with a flushed face, followed by Mrs Warren. She orders him to go back to the dance and he does, without a sound. The teacher leaves the other way, so when Ned passes in front of her, MJ jumps out of her hiding spot and asks him casually: "Sup Leeds?"

"What the f– MJ don't scare me like that!" he screams, jumping out of his skin. He places a hand on his chest and glares at her with as mad of a face he can make.

"What are you up to?" MJ asks, raising her eyebrows at him. "Where's Parker?"

"What? Um, nothing, Peter had to go, he had a… a family emergency."

"Really?" She doesn't believe him. It's pretty obvious he's lying, he didn't even look her in the eye when he said it. He seems restless too, and she wonders again where the hell Peter is. She can't force him to tell her the truth though. "Too bad. I was looking forward to making fun of his dull face."

"Right, OK." Ned nods, fidgeting on his phone and probably not even listening to her anymore. MJ sighs and leaves him there, a bit hurt at his lack of conversation. But she can't blame him. She usually won't even talk to him at all.

It's all over the news the next day. Spider-man stopped that vulture guy from stealing a bunch of Stark's stuff and almost destroyed Coney Island's Luna Park in the process. The pictures of the wreckage are insane. But that's not even the worst part. Turns out the crazy vulture man was actually Liz's _father_. He had been stealing alien debris from Damage Control to make and sell crazy ass weapons ever since the battle of New York. Allegedly.

Dealing alien stuff pays good then if you can afford that kind of house, MJ thinks.

Once again, she wonders why Peter disappeared right when all that was happening. But that's not enough proof and she knows it. Still, she thinks there's at least a 40% chance that he is actually Spider-man. What happened in DC made that number higher than ever, but there's so much more to that. How he physically changed last year after their visit to Oscorp. How he doesn't seem very interested by Spider-man in the first place, when he's being an absolute fan girl about Iron freaking Man. That black eye when he came back after that three-day absence in June, around the exact same time Spider-man was spotted fighting in Germany. Spider-man destroying suburban gardens exactly when Liz has a party over at her house in said suburbs. And now him abandoning Liz for Homecoming when he's been drooling over her for months, and next thing they know Liz's freaking _dad_ is actually stopped by the wall-crawler?

So many coincidences, that don't seem like coincidences to her at all.

Make it at least 50%.

But maybe she's biased, she can't help herself thinking. Maybe she _is_ biased because she likes him a little more than she probably should. And she would like for him to be Spider-man, of course she would.

It would suit him.

She might be a little in over her head about the whole thing.

Monday afternoon strolls by and suddenly she finds herself sitting in the library for Decathlon practice. Liz is gone, she went back to Oregon with her mom while her dad is being trialed. Poor Liz. That's gotta suck.

Mr Harrington starts off the day by congratulating them again on their win, and everybody claps and MJ can't help her smile and does too. Then something happens that she did not expect at all. Mr Harrington goes on: "I'm a little ahead of the game but we will need a new team captain next year, so I am appointing… Michelle."

Everybody turns to her and they all applaud again, and they seem genuinely happy for her and it warms her heart. "Uh, thank you," she says when they stop, and somehow she decides to take the leap. "My… my friends call me MJ."

"I thought you didn't have any friends?" Ned says curiously.

"I… didn't." she retorts quietly. She's pretty sure nobody actually realizes what this truly means to her, but she's glad she finally did it. She doesn't like it when people call her Michelle, even though it is technically her name. She would rather have everyone using MJ, especially the huge dork sitting in front of her, but that she doesn't say.

Luckily for her, Peter's phone starts vibrating right after she so bluntly let them see just a little piece of her true self. She watches as he checks the message and frowns, then he is gathering his things and vaguely says: "I uh, I gotta go."

Time to mess with him. He's clearly asking for it anyway. Well.

"Hey where are you going?" she cuts him with a suspicious frown as he was about to stand up. His brown eyes widen a little and he slowly points to somewhere behind him, visibly nervous. God it's just so easy. "What are you hiding… Peter?" His mouth starts opening, and something flashes in his eyes, and then she takes pity on him and she starts chuckling: "I'm just kidding I don't care, bye!"

She goes on about practice and so he stands up and leaves quietly, not without a last glimpse at her. And she watches him as he goes, thinking to herself:

_I _will_ find out what you're hiding, Peter __Parker__._

* * *

_Thanks for reading, please leave a comment to tell me what you think!_


	3. Chapter 3

_I got one follower, YES! This one is dedicated to you, since you seem to be the only one who read LOL_

;)

* * *

67% sure

_January 19th, 2017_

**55%**

He appeared out of nowhere.

Everybody was going home, last period of the day had just ended. I was walking down the stairs so I saw everything from above. There was this girl, Anna something, a Sophomore. She was talking with her friend, she stepped off the sidewalk to cross the road. She was not paying attention, and so found herself in front of one of the school buses. The driver saw her and tried to stop but it was too late.

Then Parker jumped out of nowhere and pushed her out of the way.

I'm pretty sure he wasn't even _close_ to the girl. I would have seen him otherwise. In any case, he saved her. After that, he helped her back on her feet then just left like nothing had happened.

Weirdo.

* * *

_February 14th, 2017_

**42%**

I can't believe I even _consider_ the idea that Parker might be Spider-man. He's so dumb it's actually unbelievable. The girl he saved a couple of weeks ago tried to ask him out for Valentine's day today during lunch, but he didn't even realize it. She asked if he was up to something tonight and he said he'd probably end up eating take out with his aunt. When she told him she'd like to spend time with him to thank him for saving her the other day, he said something like '_Oh you don't have to really, it was nothing_' and then he sat down at our table like nothing. Ned had to tell him that she was probably asking him out because it was Valentine's day and everything, and he wouldn't believe him! _I_ had to confirm it to him before it finally dawned on him how dumb he was.

Long story short, I'm pretty sure he did end up eating take out with his aunt tonight, and he'll probably end up dying alone too because he is so fucking blind he can't even see when someone actually likes him.

I am _not_ frustrated.

* * *

_April 23rd, 2017_

**47%**

Today's Sunday, I went to Central Park for a little while with my mom. Weirdly enough, I saw Leeds and Parker there at some point. Fast forward an hour or two, and suddenly police sirens are erupting everywhere near East 72nd Street playground, turns out a bank is being robbed somewhere. We walked right into Ned a couple of minutes later, all alone. When I asked him where Parker was, he told me he was '_around here somewhere_' which was suspicious if you ask me, coming from one of two Siamese brothers who are never seen without one another at school. Sadly we had to leave before he came back, but weird timing right?

* * *

_May 8th, 2017_

**51%**

Yesterday, there was a huge fight in Brooklyn when a crazy ass huge weirdo tried to steal a truck full of Oscorp stuff. I think he calls himself the Rhino or something. Anyway, it was live on the internet and everything, everyone got to see Spider-man kicking his butt. It took him a while though, and he got stomped pretty hard at some point.

Weird coincidence though, this morning Parker was limping from his left leg, which, of course, was the exact same leg Spider-man got run on by the Rhino yesterday. When I asked him why, he looked at me like a panicked idiot for a full minute before mumbling that he fell in the stairs at home.

Right.

* * *

_May 12th, 2017_

**58%**

Tony fucking Stark was spotted in his not at all inconspicuous red car in front of Midtown today. And of course, who was he seen talking to? Yup, you guessed right, your Stupid Neighborhood Spider-Parker. Even Flash was at a loss of words. Peter was as red as a beet when he realized the Decathlon team had seen him talking to Stark. He tried to explain it was nothing but internship stuff, but the others were so excited they didn't even listen to him. Ned could barely contain himself, poor dude.

It's not that I don't _like_ Tony Stark but man, he pisses me off for some reason. I know, he's mostly a good guy now, and I kind of like that whole self sustainable energy source he's got going on, but I still _really_ feel like he's the biggest douche I've ever seen.

Peter seems to look up to him though.

* * *

_June 5th, 2017_

**53%**

Field trip to the American Museum of Natural History. Pretty awesome right?

Parker fell asleep in the bus going there and missed the whole thing.

Minus 5%, but I should probably get back to 0% because seriously dude?

I can't believe him.

The exhibition about mommies was neat though.

* * *

_August 10th, 2017_

**?%**

I really don't know what happened today. It was Parker's 16th birthday. I knew he was going to be at that little cafe with Ned this afternoon – don't ask me how, please – so I went. I kind of wanted to wish him a happy birthday, yeah, sue me.

Anyway.

I got there, and here they are, talking to each other like they always are, which is in a completely oblivious to everything around them kind of way. I walk to them and can't help but overhear what they're talking about because they're not really quiet. I was _not_ trying to eavesdrop or anything, but yeah. I hear Peter talk about his suit and how it's getting upgraded or something.

Who upgrades his suit? What kind of suit needs an upgrade? Why would he need a freaking suit anyway?

I mean… And then I step in and they look at me like I'm the devil or something, and then they're like "Oh hi MJ, what's up, yeah, we were talking about Halloween just now." and I mean like, what the fuck right?

Talking about Halloween in August, yeah.

K, bbye weirdos.

I almost forgot to wish him his birthday – not that he deserves it anyway, he's so _obviously_ lying all the time he's just rude. But then I came back and said it and he looked at me with his stupid face like I'd just kicked a puppy and offered him the best gift ever at the same time. He's so fucking weird I can't even.

Anyway, I don't know at what percentage we are right now, just like, either 0.5% or 99% really.

* * *

_September 6th, 2017_

**58%**

There was a huge fire last night not so far from where I live. Spider-man was spotted there helping the firefighters get everyone out of the building. This morning Parker smelled like burnt cake.

Probably just a coincidence though, he doesn't strike me as a genius in the kitchen.

Must have burnt his cereals this morning or something.

When I told him he smelled like the Human Torch's underwear, he blushed so hard it was actually super funny.

* * *

_October 1st, 2017_

**55%**

Isn't Spider-man supposed to have like, inhuman reflexes? He's super fast and everything, right? 'Cause Parker is not at all. In gym today I caught him looking at me. When our eyes met he opened his mouth like a fucking fish out of the water and then BOOM got hit in the face by a basketball stupid Eugene had thrown at him.

So much for inhuman reflexes right?

There's always a part of me who wonders if he's being dumb on purpose so that nobody can actually figure out he _is_ Spider-man… Okay, scratch that, let's make it 55% actually.

* * *

_November 3rd, 2017_

**51%**

Today was Betty's birthday. We had prepared a little surprise for her during Decathlon Practice. It was meant to b E, right? I'm pretty sure I made it perfectly clear to everyone this morning when I told them about it. But stupid Peter Parker cannot keep a freaking secret it seems. He told her about it during lunch time, the idiot! He said "Hey, happy birthday Betty, it's gonna be so much fun this afternoon at Decathlon Practice!" … how can you expect someone like HIM to be Spider-man and keep it a secret if he can't even keep his fucking mouth shut for one day?!

I just. I can't. I'm _done_ with this idiot.

* * *

_November 27th, 2017_

**?%**

I don't know what's up with Parker these days. Every time I see him he's either doing something incredibly stupid or he's sleeping. He sleeps everywhere and anywhere, in classes, outside, during lunch, and when he doesn't, he is behaving like an idiot, tripping on his own feet and dropping things and stammering like he has a hot potato in his mouth or something. I really don't know what's going on.

I've been meeting his eyes more and more often too. That's weird. He never paid much attention to me before.

Is he suspecting me suspecting him?

Is he doing all this dumb stuff to prove me wrong when I'm actually right?

* * *

_December 21st, 2017_

**59%**

Today I heard something. I'm just gonna transcribe it right there because it kind of speaks for itself. Parker was on the phone outside the cafeteria. This is what I heard (and I just happened to walk close by, really, I wasn't even _trying_ to hear what he was saying):

"Happy hey, hi, yes, it's nice to hear from y– He wants me there? But like, wh– OK right I get it yeah, does he want me in the suit or– what the h– yeah yeah, language sorry– a Christmas hat?! You're shitting me right?– yeah yeah, sorry… Alright well I guess I'll be there then, what time?… OK then, see ya tonight um– yeah yeah, alright, bye Happy."

So, either he is working as a part time Santa Claus in some mall – which is dumb –, either Susan Yang is right and he is a male escort – which is even dumber really. Those are my hypothesis, or you know, last one, he _is_ Spider-man.

As I'm writing these lines, the picture is starting to go viral. Spider-man spotted swinging across Manhattan wearing a freaking Santa's hat.

Is this even real?

* * *

_January 1st, 2018_

I'm really not in the whole 'new year new me' kind of stuff, but I'm really starting to wonder if all of this is a good idea or not. If Parker really is Spider-man, maybe he has a good reason to keep it a secret. Maybe he is, and maybe it's none of my business. Maybe I just need to let it go, and focus on more important stuff. Like midterms, or college applications. Ugh, I can't wait for High School to be finally over, like pretty much everyone ever in the entire history of the human race.

* * *

_February 26th, 2018_

Freedom.

* * *

_March 2nd, 2018_

**60%**

I think I did pretty good. Managed to not pay that much attention to Parker and his spider-whereabouts for two whole months. That's great. Now that midterms are over though, school's boring again, so I really can't blame myself if I dive right back into it.

Remember how Peter fell asleep in pretty much every single class since the beginning of the school year? Yeah, he still managed to ace his midterms. I knew he was smart, but I never would've guessed he could pull that one off.

He's still behaving like an idiot most of the times I see him, but I'm pretty sure he's doing that on purpose now. Sometimes I wonder if I should just confront him about it. 60% is a high probability, isn't it? What could go wrong anyway? I go up to him and tell him casually "So yeah, are you Spider-man or what?" and then wait and see what he says?

If he is he'll panic and deny it faster than Darth Vader flew out of the Death Star in a New Hope.

If he is not… he'll probably just laugh and I'll just look suspiciously at him and that'll be it. Or he'll think I'm completely stupid.

Yeah, we can't have that, can we.

I really don't have the guts anyway.

* * *

_March 13th, 2018_

**62%**

Today in gym I saw him. Like, saw him really, with his shirt off. I didn't mean to, and like I told him afterwards I'm mostly scarred for life now, but yeah. I'm pretty sure no 16 year-old has ever had a body like that. So either he spends his days working out because he _is_ a male escort – Susan is adamant about it – or you know, he got buffed like that as a masked vigilante spending his late afternoon and nights fighting bad guys and helping people out.

I wonder if Susan has a notebook where she writes every little piece of proof she gets that Peter _is_ a male escort. Probably not.

* * *

_March 20th, 2018_

**64%**

Something happened today, it happened accidentally, but it gave me an idea. During lunchtime, I was walking to our table where the two losers were already sitting. I usually make my way to my seat without walking pass them, but I don't know why today I did. I accidentally bumped Parker's opened bottle of water with my backpack. It should have fallen on the floor and spilled everywhere, but it didn't. Peter caught it right as it was tipping over the edge of the table, took a quick sip and put the cap back on, before setting it back on the table again. In a couple of seconds. I barely even got time to register what had just happened. Then I met his gaze, and he looked at me with widening eyes, but I just feign disdain like I usually do, and moved on to my seat. I could barely breath and my heart was going crazy in my chest. I pretended to ignore them, but I noticed they were whispering to each other and saw Ned looking over at me a couple of times.

All this gave me an idea. To prove that Parker is – or isn't – Spider-man, I need to think like a proper scientist and just test stuff. Gather tangible proof of what he's capable of, and see if it coincides or not with him being what who I think he is.

Time to test my theories. First things first, what are Spider-man's known aptitudes?

* he can crawl on walls

* he has super strength

* he has super reflexes

* he is super smart (you know, he created his own webs and stuff)

That's pretty much it. It is not going to be easy to test his ability to crawl on freaking walls, and I already know how smart that dumb ass is, so that leaves us with the other two. Two variables, one test subject.

Let the trial begin.

* * *

_March 21st, 2018_

**DAY 1**

Try 1: _Catch!_

All day I threw stuff at him – pencil case, books, apple, bottle of water etc. The test subject caught them all, even that one time he was sleeping in Chemistry class and I threw him a test tube. I'm glad he did catch it otherwise I would probably have ended up in detention. Yes, that was not really thought through but whatever.

**Conclusion:** The test subject has indeed good reflexes. Now we have to determine if they are _inhuman_ reflexes or not. Will try throwing stuff at him without yelling '_catch_' next time.

* * *

_March 28th, 2018_

**DAY 2**

We will leave a certain amount of time between two trials so that the test subject doesn't get suspicious. A six to seven day interval should do it.

Try 2: _100lbs? More like 300 am I right_

We're doing the Captain America fitness challenge again in gym, so that's handy. I switched the test subject's weights from 100lbs to 300 and waited for him to lift them. He got on the bench and started lifting, I'm almost sure I saw it move, and then Ned stopped him and they had a very quiet talk, then they took off the weights back to a 100lbs. So that's kind of a fail, but not really.

**Conclusion: **The test subject was about to lift the weights but was stopped by his sidekick, very suspicious in my opinion.

* * *

_April 4th, 2018_

**DAY 3**

Try 3: _Door in the face_

The plan was, I wait behind the door of the cafeteria, the one that opens both ways, and when he's about to go out, I kick it and he gets it right into the face – I know, it would probably break his nose if it hits him, MJ you're so mean, blah blah. Doesn't matter because I completely failed my experiment – and yet it did prove something else; that's the beauty of science, really.

So I was behind the door, and so was he, but we pushed at the same time, and he obviously was way stronger than me because it propelled me back and I fell right on my butt. Man, I was so pissed, you should have seen his face he was terrified. He helped me back on my feet and apologized 4562 times before I told I would kick his ass if he didn't stop and so he did.

**Conclusion: **The test subject is indeed strong, his stupid muscles and abs aren't fake.

* * *

_April 10th, 2018_

**DAY 4**

Try 4: _There's a snake in my __boot__ locker_

So I managed during lunchtime to pick the test subject's locker and placed inside one of these toy snake in a can for it to fall on the ground when he opens his locker and startle him when he picks it up. It worked perfectly. Except it was _not_ on the test subject. Stupid Ned came to pick up something for him and got pranked instead.

No further comment your Honor.

* * *

_April 11th, 2018_

**DAY 5**

Try 5: _Break it Pete_

I changed his locker's combination and then watched as he tried to open it. He tortured himself with frustrating growls for a solid two-minute, and then like expected, he forced it open. That's not an easy thing to do – I know it, I tried multiple times, don't ask why. Anyway, he caught me looking at him a second later. He waved at me like an idiot and I didn't know what to do so I just made fun of him for forgetting his locker's combination. That was dumb.

**Conclusion:** We're gonna need a bigger boat. Sorry, I'm tired and watching Jaws for some reason. The real conclusion is, the test subject is strong, he's buffed, he _annoys_ me like no one else can. I think this study is affecting my mental health, I should probably stop.

* * *

_April 18th, 2018_

**DAY 6**

Try 6: _Scaredy Spider_

New plan: let's just try to scare the test subject and see how he reacts. I snuck up on him at least five times today. If he doesn't suspect anything now then he's pretty dumb. The first two times he didn't even flinch, the idiot, and looked at me with his big brown eyes like he had no idea what I was trying to do. After these two times, I'm pretty sure he then _pretended_ to be startled. He played along. _Ugh_, I can't believe how annoyingly nice he is. Or you know, how manipulative he is. Do you think I wouldn't figure it out? Do you think I'm dumb enough not to see that you're clearly hiding something?

It doesn't matter anyway, because Spring break is starting in a couple of days and I can't wait to get away from everything. I'm just tired. I need a break from all this.

* * *

_April 29th, 2018_

So I was kind of angry last time, and now I think I know why. If he is indeed Spider-man, then I'm pretty sad that he would not tell _me_. Which is dumb because we're barely even _friends_. I guess I've been watching him for too long now. I feel like I know him enough for him to trust me, but that's just stupid because I might trust him but does he trust me? He doesn't even know me. That's sad, really. We've been in the same classes for three years now, and he barely even knows me.

That's just really, really sad.

What's even gonna happen when our Senior year is over? I should really just stop everything and move on this stupid crush.

There, I said it.

I'm sorry to report that the trial is compromised because of a massive conflict of interests. Over.

* * *

_May 31st, 2018_

He's gone.

He disappeared yesterday, when we were on the bus on our way to the Museum of Modern Art.

When the flying donuts alien ship thingy was flying over Greenwich village.

I got distracted, I looked out the window and saw it, and before I realized what was going on Peter had disappeared again.

And then there was this awful, shaky footage of Spider-man clinging to the spaceship and Iron Man flying around it, and honestly I've never felt sicker in my entire life.

When I first saw it last night, I still had a teeny tiny bit of hope left. That hope died this morning. Peter is nowhere to be seen.

And now I'm sitting on my own at lunch, and I'm pretty sure I'm having a panic attack right now. I can barely breath, my stomach hurts so much. I saw Ned earlier, he looked sick too. Nobody else seems to have noticed Peter's absence. All they can talk about is what about yesterday in Manhattan and in Edinburgh. While a handful of dumb asses are excited about it, pretty much everyone else is mostly scared.

Teachers are trying to keep things going like nothing out of the ordinary happened yesterday, but they're not fooling anyone. It's not as if there is a threat of an imminent alien invasion or something. God it feels like six years ago.

It's lunchtime but the principal invited everyone to come and watch the marching band rehearse before the big match Saturday. I didn't want to go, so here I am, all alone in the cafeteria. The sudden silence feels nice. I don't even know what sport they're playing.

I don't know, and I don't care.

All I want to know is if he's safe.

Please, let him be s

* * *

_Please leave a comment to tell me what you think. _

_I know it's a bit self-important of me but DAMN I am very proud of that ending and I absolutely love it. _

_There. Hope you had fun reading, I sure as hell had fun writing!_


	4. Chapter 4

_Hello again! Thanks for the follows and the favorites, and thanks for the comment AC139 :D_

_I have indeed written more, and here it is. Last chapter ended with Thanos' Snap and MJ disappearing._

_This chapter is written at the first person because I felt like it made sense and I really wanted to dig deep into what MJ was feeling._

_Hope you guys like it!_

* * *

67% sure

I blinked.

I was in the middle of writing a word. _Safe_. I was wishing for Peter Parker to be safe. Something suddenly felt off, I stopped writing and looked around.

Then I blinked.

Next thing I know, I'm falling on my butt. I look around, astonished. The disposition of the cafeteria has changed. There are fewer tables and benches, and they're all gathered on the other side of the room where the sun is shining through the large windows. The corner where I am is somehow dark and dusty. The bulletin board on the wall in front of me is empty, when I'm pretty sure it was filled with useless information seconds ago. It always is. Posters about upcoming events or clubs or reminders of the school's policy and stuff.

But now there's nothing on it.

Just the light brown plain surface of the cork it's made of.

Something's wrong.

I stand up and stumbles a second from the blood rush. The cafeteria is empty still. I'm all alone. I look around again. Where's my stuff? My backpack, my books, my Spider-Parker notebook?

Oh _crap_.

I can't seem to form coherent thoughts. Something is definitely not right, but what exactly? As this question crosses my mind, I suddenly hear screaming. I don't even think twice. I run out of the cafeteria in direction of the cries, which could prove itself to be a very stupid move but I don't care.

I need to see someone, anyone, just to make sure everything's fine.

Something tells me it most definitely is not though.

The screams have now stopped but I'm pretty sure they were coming from the gymnasium. I take a sharp turn in the East Hallway and suddenly bump into someone. Second time I fall on my butt today, this has got to stop. I look up and meet Betty Brant's eyes, wide with shock and probably reflecting mine perfectly.

We don't say anything. We help each other back on our feet and scramble towards the gymnasium together.

I can't really process what I'm seeing when we get there. It's a mess. A huge, unintelligible mess. Everyone is talking all at once, they all seem shocked. I recognize some of the faces in the crowd on the court and on the benches, but not all of them, and that freaks me out. I thought Principal Morita had invited everyone to come and watch the Marching Band's rehearsal, but there seems to be basketball players involved as well.

"What the hell is going on here?"

I'm not even sure anyone's heard me. I'm not the only one who seems to be completely stunned. The tuba player, Tom something, is lying on the ground and complaining about getting hit in the face by a basketball, and really I just can't understand anything right now.

I meet Ned's stunned gaze from across the room and for a second, we share a look.

Then it all becomes hectic when suddenly adults come rushing in the gymnasium, openly freaked out. I can't really decipher what's going on for the next five minutes, up until someone suddenly screams:

"It's the Vanished, they're back!"

And I have no idea what this means, but somehow half of the room seems to do. People I don't really recognize, except for a couple of them that vaguely look like some of my classmates' younger siblings or something. They seem astonished, but smiles and cries quickly erupt as the realization – of what, no idea – dawns on them. A very sloppy Mr Harrington hugs me at some point and he seems so distraught and utterly relieved that the only thing I can do is hug him back as he cries on my shoulder.

It takes them a little while, but finally they tell us what's going on.

I can't help myself and just deny the whole thing – internally. This is impossible. It doesn't make any sense.

If we did indeed vanish and were gone for more than five years, how – _why_ – are we suddenly back?

I stay quiet though. Most of us do. Flash doesn't. He's screaming that it's nothing but a scam, and I know he's just properly scared. I am, too. My mind can't focus on a single thing. It's jumping on thoughts after thoughts after thoughts and how it's impossible, and how this can't be, and what about my parents, and Peter, and everyone I know? Who saved us? How, why? What happened during these five years, _five years,_ five freaking years missing.

I feel like I'm about to throw up, and there's a couple of people like me, the 'Vanished' like they call us, who actually do.

It's chaos. Utter and proper chaos.

It takes a long, _long_ time to get things remotely organized. They put us in one room and ask us for information on how to contact anyone from our families. Figure out if they were snapped by Thanos too, or not. Help us find a place to crash in the meantime. All of them are helping out.

And it's beautiful, how relieved and amazed they seem to be that we are 'back'. I try to put myself in their shoes, although it is difficult because literally one second has passed for me. How many second passed for them? I'm so stressed out I'm actually doing maths now.

One day, 86,400 seconds. 365 days times 5 because we were gone five years, roughly. I could be more thorough and count the months as well, we disappeared at the end of May and it's now October. October 2023. _Don't think too much, MJ, please._

365 times 5. 1,825 days. Now times 86,400.

It takes me a little while to do it, which is nice because it helps me focus on something more tangible than the whole '_I just missed 5 years of my life while others kept going_' thing. It still feels like my heart jumped up in my throat and decided to stay there. It's uncomfortable. It hurts. I might hurl, or not, I don't know. I'm so scared and lost and I don't know what's actually going to happen now. It's just crazy.

_Multiply MJ, __come on, just __DO IT._

Are memes still a thing?

"157 millions 680 thousands seconds."

The others turn to me with frowns and surprised expressions. There's Ned, and Betty, and Flash, I know their faces, I cling to them as I shrug. Pretending to be nonchalant and whatnot. That's me.

"That's how many seconds passed for _them_."

A long silence follows my words. Maybe I should have kept that information to myself. Well. That's what I'm thinking, until Betty grabs my hand and squeezes it, and suddenly it feels as if my chest is about to burst from overwhelmness or something. My eyes are so close to overflowing and leaking everywhere, and I just can't let that happen. I squeeze her hand back for a split second because I'm not a monster, and then I stand up real fast and walk across the room to hide my _tears_.

I'm not ready. They can't see me like that. Nobody can. Especially now.

My thoughts keep going back to three people. My mom, my dad, Peter. Were they gone to? I deeply wish they were. I try to think. Where would they have been when the Snap occurred? My mom was probably at the hospital, I'm pretty sure she had a day shift today – or you know, five years ago. My dad… I think he said something last night – or whenever, this is just deeply confusing really – about coming home early to meet with the plumber or something. Yeah, that's right, we have, we had, a small leak in the kitchen.

As for Peter… who knows?

I consider for a second asking Ned about him. Maybe later. Right now I need to find my family.

I reach out to the person in charge of the organization of the room we're in. It's Mrs Warren, the Physics teacher. She looks older, of course she does. _Five years_. I tell her I might know where my parents are and I could just go and look for them myself. She looks at me with compassion but refuses.

"I'm sorry Michelle, but although you haven't been to Midtown in a long time, we are responsible for you as you are still technically a minor. I mean, I know it's confusing, but you are 16." She scratches her eyebrow with an uneasy smile. "I guess it's actually more confusing for me than for you though, right?" She's trying to diffuse the tension and I'm thankful she is, but I also feel anger rushing through me because I don't _know_ where my parents are, if they're OK, and it's positively killing me. "Don't worry Michelle, we will find them, I promise."

I just nod and go back to where the others are sitting. Ned is talking to himself it seems, asking Ned questions, and for a moment I just listen to his rambling, which, in a way, kind of soothes me.

"Why did we snap with our clothes but not the objects we were holding? Did it happen for the animals too? Where were we during these five years? Were we just gone? Was our conscience saved somewhere so we could come back the same way we were before? How does the Snap work? Is it completely random or does it work with an algorithm of some sort? Who brought us back? What about people who were in a plane when they got snapped? Man, I hope they're not dead. Also, what happened to the contents of our stomach when we disappeared? Why am I hungry when I ate approximately two hours ago according to _my_ time?"

The last one brings half a smile on my face and a roll of eyes too. It coincides with a bunch of people bringing us some food and we eat in silence, although from Ned's face I'm pretty sure his rambling is still going on internally. The food is different, less complex than before. It makes sense. 3,5 billion people gone, food production probably had to adapt. It's going to have to adapt again now that we're all back.

Man, this is gonna be tough.

Hopefully though, maybe people and politicians are less corrupted now. An entire Earth suffering from the same trauma must have become better. Less selfish. I really hope so. Otherwise we're screwed.

It takes another hour before the first one of us leaves. It's Jason Ionello. His parents didn't snap, his little brother either. They come to pick him up, and I feel a weird tug of jealousy when I watch them hug and cry in each other's arms. Jason is pretty shocked that his little brother is now taller, and probably older as well, than him. It makes sense.

This is so F'd up.

Then it's Ned's turn. His parents didn't snap, they tell him they mourned him for years. Their only son. Both of them are crying from relief, and then Ned does too, and it gets really difficult to prevent emotions from leaking all over my face. I almost regret eating that half of a tuna sandwich, because my stomach hurts so much from stress that I still feel like I'm about to throw up.

And then it happens. Someone calls my name. And I see her.

I recognize her immediately, and yet she is so different. Her face is wrinkled, the light in her brown eyes is gone. She looks tired, worn out, barely coping. _Thin, sort of stretched, __like butter scraped over too much bread._ I don't know why Bilbo Baggins' words (or Tolkien's) come to my mind, but they do perfectly describe what she looks like – what it feels like, seeing her.

She hugs me, and I hug her back, and I feel how uncomfortable she seems to be. A lump starts forming in my throat. Something's not right.

Definitely not.

She tells me when we exit Midtown. She didn't snap, Dad and I did. She was left all alone. She was depressed for a couple of years. Then she met someone.

"Hi, I'm Philip Watson, it's very nice to get to meet you, Michelle." The man says. His voice is calm and empathetic. I can barely look at him though. I just nod and stick by my mom while we walk back to his – _their_ – car. It's no rocket science to understand this. I do, I comprehend it, why she moved on with another man to cope for her loss.

It still hurts like a son of a bitch though.

We get to their place, a nice apartment in Fresh Meadows. I'm still too shocked to speak. Then it gets even worse. There's a girl watching TV. She's around my age, redheaded. She turns off the screen and smiles brightly at me, extending her hand in my direction.

"Hi, I'm Mary Jane, but please, call me MJ!"

I feel like I'm chocking. My eyes sting so much it hurts. I turn to my mom, ignoring the girl. "We need to find Dad," I tell her. She looks uneasily at the man next to her – her husband? Are they married?

"Honey I'm sorry, it's almost nighttime… We'll look for him in the morning. We'll find him I promise."

I can't believe it. I know it's been five years for her, but seriously mom what the hell? Did she completely erased us from her life? Are we done?

I can't stay here. I just can't.

"I'll swing by our place to see if he's around." I say coldly to the three of them. "Don't wait up."

And I leave.

I'm not even sure they try to stop me. To be honest, I'm so sad and angry that I can barely register anything around me anymore. I step outside, and look up to see the fiery sky as the sun is setting behind me. My head, my heart, my _guts_ all seem ready to burst. I take a deep breath, and it feels less polluted than it did this morning – five years ago. Birds are flying and chirping in the sky.

I take another deep breath and close my eyes. _Oxygenate your brain, buddy_.

Slowly, the panic attack I've been having for so long finally recedes. It's still here, waiting in the dark confines of my mind, ready for the next tragedy to strike, but at least I'm in control again. That's good.

_B__aby steps._

That's when I feel someone slightly touch the back of my hand. I open my eyes again and meet mom's gaze. She's crying. She's scared. She's lost.

"I have to do this, mom."

"I know," she nods sadly. She hesitates for a second, then asks: "Do you want me to come?"

Her hesitation gave me the answer before she even asked. "I'm fine, don't worry. Stay here, with…" I try to swallow the lump in my throat to say the word but I can't yet. "Just, stay here."

"Let me give you some things before you go, OK?"

I catch a glimpse of my real mom when she says that. I nod, teeth clenching to hold back the deep sob that was about to escape my lips. We go back inside, and thank _God_ the other two are nowhere to be seen. I wonder if mom asked them to stay away. In any case, it's a huge relief. I'm not ready. Not yet. I am empathetic, I am understanding, but this, this is too much.

She takes me to her room, and grabs a cardboard box from the back of the closet. I let out a little sigh of relief when I see what's inside. My backpack, some of my favorite books, my old teddy, my sketchbooks. She didn't erase me completely after all, even if she did relegate me in a dark closet, stuffed between socks and underwears.

"Here." She hands me something and I take it, my heart jumping in my chest. "I didn't read it, I know how secretive you are."

It's my Spider-Parker notebook. I can't believe how lucky I am that she didn't read it. I hope no one else did. They'd have figure out how stalkerish I can be. This would have been bad.

"Thanks. Where did you –"

"When _it_ happened, I rushed to your school to look for you, like many parents still there did. I found your stuff in the cafeteria, untouched." Her voice breaks and she takes a staggering breath. "I saw it, your last page, your last word I– it was the worst day of my life." She meets my gaze, and her eyes are bright with tears. "I know you understand this, and I know you understand everything that happens afterwards." Her words are barely higher than a whisper now. "I know you do, because you're the most empathetic person I know, Michelle. And I know it's too soon now, and I know it will take a while, but I just need you to know that I love you. I loved you before, I loved you when you were gone, and I will love you now that you are back."

I just nod again, unable to say a word. But mom knows me. She doesn't expect me to say anything. She wipes the tears off her face, gives me a wet smile, then goes back to filling my backpack with stuff she deems essential. Clothes, books, my sketchbook and art stuff, and Mr Hairy Beary too. I'm too emotional right now to even care. I add my Spider-Parker notebook to the lot, then mom hugs me for a minute. I swallow my tears back where they belong.

I cannot afford the luxury to collapse right now.

I need to find dad first.

Right before I step out of the apartment, my mom's new old boyfriend/husband/coping mechanism hands me a phone and some money. "Call us when you find him and you're both safe," he says quietly, and I hear in his voice he's actually sincere.

I guess I could give that guy a chance. Then mom hugs him and suddenly my throat is very dry, so dry that my next words are barely audible. "'Right, see ya around then."

And I leave. It's getting dark, but I'm not scared. I probably should be, but I'm not. I'm focused. I'm determined. I need to find my dad, and I need to get my life back on track.

Screw Thanos.

* * *

_Friendly reminder that comments are DEEPLY appreciated._

_Until next time!_


	5. Chapter 5

_Hello everyone!_  
_This chapter starts with a couple of entries in MJ's Spider-Parker notebook, and then we're back to classic third-person POV. Lots of MJ/Peter interactions in this one, hope you like reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I love these two_

* * *

67% sure

_October 18th_

I cannot bring myself to write the full date. It's too much.

I found him. My dad. He's sitting right next to me right now.

Last night, when I left my mom's, I quickly came to the deduction that there were only two places my dad could have gone after he snapped back into reality: Midtown High School, to check on _me_, or the hospital my mom works at – used to work at? – to check on _her_. The hospital was closer, so that's where I went. Sure enough I found him there. He was disorientated like most of us, and hung onto me like a lifeline when I reached him in the crowded entrance of the building. He asked about mom, of course he did, so I told him everything. Something turned off in his eyes and from then on I had to make decisions for the both of us myself.

Really, all I want to do since then is yell 'Get a grip!' in his ear and slap his face, but I figured I could give the guy some time to process everything. It's always been like that anyway. I've always felt like the most adult-y person of our small malfunctioning family.

By the time I got reunited with my dad, it had been 8 hours since the Vanished reappeared. Things were still pretty much chaotic – they still are 24 hours later – but people were starting to get organized. Abandoned warehouses opened up to let homeless snap-backers have a shelter and someplace to stay while things got figured out. People dropped by all night and all day today, trying to find their loved ones. Others came by to bring us food and clothes and blankets.

A handful of sane people – from the Vanished and the others – have decided to list the names of everyone staying in the warehouse we're currently at, to make it easier to find everyone. I've offered my help, and we've been collecting names and taking pictures on a shared document on our phones all day. It's been a long process. There's hundreds of us in here.

The worse ones are the little kids. We've put them all in a little corner where they all hang out, to try and keep tabs on them and take care of them while we wait for their parents. Someone managed to get them some toys this morning, which helped a little. There's at least 30 of them, some barely older than 2. Scared and lost and crying. Somehow it reminds me of that movie I saw about the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia.

It's overwhelming to see that many people needing help, and if you stop doing stuff for just a second it feels like drowning.

It helps writing all this. I drew people too, at some point. We're all in crisis, so if there's ever been a more perfect pool of subjects…

But I am still so _angry_. Imagine it, one day you're living your life, the next you're a homeless slob because a dumb ass alien thought he could decide all on his own what's best for the Galaxy.

It's getting better though.

Because now we know what happened.

She made a statement live earlier today. Pepper Potts. Explained everything. How the Hulk brought us all back. Then the battle upstate against Thanos and his army. How Iron Man snapped his fingers too, making them all disappear, and dying in the process.

I've always quite admire that woman. CEO of Stark Industries, all day putting up with Stark's bullshit. She was wrecked. Destroyed by grief. Her face was a pure mask of pain and sadness, and yet her words were steady and soothing.

People are calmer ever since then. I saw some cry at the news that Tony Stark had died. I must admit I do feel sorry for the guy, too. For his family. Probably only because I know how much Peter looked up to him.

I haven't seen him. Anywhere. I really do hope he's alright. Feels like that's all I've been hoping for, for him, these past few days. Ever since the donuts spaceship flew over Greenwich. I can't believe it's been more than five years for half of humanity.

Still feels like four days to me.

* * *

_October 26th _

We've been lucky. Mom reached out to us on the 19th. Turns out her new old boyfriend knew someone who knew someone who could get us an apartment. It's very small and only has one bedroom so dad's sleeping in the living room, but really that's still better than at least one quarter of the rest of mankind these days.

Last night I finally got enough. I grabbed him by the shoulders and prompted him to stop with his bullshit and get on with life. He stared at me from a distant boozy haze but he heard me. He left this morning, clean and shaved and finally wearing some decent clothes, to look for a job. Mom and what's his face are providing us for a little while, but we both know that's not going to last forever, so dad's got to do something.

I've been helping everywhere I could these past few days. Keeping up with the idea of a shared folder tracking everyone staying in shelters to help their families reach out. It's actually very rewarding and beautiful to see so many people working together to help figure things out. Earth is still an absolute mess, but smart people and authorities are slowly getting everything sorted.

And now I've just learned that Midtown Science has called out to every student that blipped – that's what everyone is calling it now, the _Blip_, which is so freaking weird if you ask me – to come back to school as soon as they can. So that's what I'm doing tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get to see if Peter is OK.

I've looked it up. There's been zero sightings of Spider-Man these past five years. Either he blipped too, or he died trying to save the world from the evil donuts spaceship. It's a scary thought. I kind of wish I'm wrong now. I kind of hope Peter Parker is _not_ Spider-Man. That he's just a regular kid who blipped, and who's coming back to school tomorrow, like the world hasn't almost _ended_ ten days ago.

All this for the sake of trying to keep a tiny bit a normalcy in our completely messed up world.

* * *

Her stomach hurts in expectancy until lunchtime. She hasn't seen him anywhere all morning, and it's completely nerve wracking if she's being honest with herself. To be fair though, she hasn't seen any of her old classmates either. Teachers are still trying to figure out where they're going to put those of them who blipped. MJ heard people saying that their mid-terms might not be validated at all and that they'd have to start their whole senior year again, which is pretty unfair but whatever.

Right now she really doesn't care.

It feels weird stepping back into the cafeteria. That's where she was when she disappeared and when she came back one second – _five years_ – later. The tables that were missing 10 days ago have been replaced. The room is packed, and not in the term she has experienced it this past week when she was helping in shelters for the Blipped. People are laughing and eating and chatting, and for a moment MJ lets herself sink into that weird, wonderful feeling that everything might actually be back to normal.

For a short moment.

Then she grabs her food and looks around. A group of people stands up and leaves a table at the far end of the cafeteria, and when they're gone, she sees Ned sitting there, across from someone.

She'd recognize those wavy brown curls anywhere.

It feels like her heart is about to explode. She lets out a shaky breath then walks towards them.

For some reason, there's only one thought circling in her head: _Act natural_.

She walks behind Peter, holding back the fingers that really, really want to squeeze his shoulder or, you know, hug him to death. She's so happy and relieved she could cry, but she doesn't. She plasters her usual neutral expression on her face as they look up from their food.

"What's up, dorks?" she asks casually, not looking at them yet. Her fingers shake a little as she sets her food on the table.

She doesn't sit at the far end like she usually does. She sits in the middle, leaving only one free spot between her and Peter. She meets his chocolate gaze when she's all set up, and he's looking surprised, and exhausted, and so very much alive she could just kiss him right there. She settles for something less obvious though.

She smiles. A smile that starts with her lips and goes all the way up to her eyes. One that fills her heart so much it's almost overwhelmingly too good. She doesn't usually let many people see this smile. She doesn't even let _herself_ see it, either.

Today she _has_ to, though. And it feels so damn good.

Even more so since Peter is giving her a huge smile as well. And he's a smiling whore that one, his emotions always show so perfectly on his face, but that smile is even more genuine and deep than usual, and she feels her heart jumping in her chest.

They've been staring at each other for just a bit too long now, she suddenly realizes. So she flushes, and right before she looks away she actually sees him flush as well, and it's so invigorating she has a hard time getting rid of her smile afterwards. She meets Ned's gaze and points her smile at him too, to make things less obvious, and then concentrates on her lunch.

The two boys are unusually quiet, but not in a bad way. The silence above the three of them is actually somehow peaceful, and it feels _good_. Normal. Friendly. Everything that her life had been lacking of for a little while now.

At some point, Peter sets his left forearm on the edge of the table, and MJ glances at him, fighting the weird urge to reach out and pinch his arm, to make sure he's real or something. It's dumb.

_Get a grip, lady._

She sees him again just once, later that afternoon, right before she's about to go home. Okay, she did intentionally stroll by where she remembers his locker was five years ago – _yeesh_ –, and sure enough just like her he's been assigned the same one. It's convenient.

She meets his gaze from across the hallway and remembers that time she'd changed his locker combination during her whole trial tests run to see if he was indeed Spider-Man or not. How he'd broken it open. How it had comforted her in her theory.

But now she's not so sure anymore. Spider-Man hasn't been spotted since the Blip.

Peter smiles sheepishly at her, and she gives him her best 'not impressed' look, which makes him chuckle. She continues walking as he closes his locker, and then somehow he catches up to her and starts walking beside her. She's painfully aware of how this never happens. She's pretty sure last time it did was that time ages ago when she'd caught him sleeping outside and nudged him awake so that Thompson wouldn't make fun of him. _Ages ago_.

They make their way out of the building in silence, and it's an awkward one, not at all like what they had during lunch. So after a little while, MJ decides to break it.

"So, what are you up to this weekend?" she asks, glancing at him as they walk down the steps.

"I'm uh moving into our new apartment, we had to find a new one, my aunt and I since we uh, blipped back and found another family living at our old place so," He makes a little sound that might have been a nervous laugh but she's not sure. They've made it down the steps, and now they're not walking anymore and are just standing there, and she feels like she has one too many arm suddenly because she has no idea what to do with either of them. Peter doesn't seem to notice though, and he keeps going, looking at his feet. "We were lucky though, people helped and we found something nice fairly quickly, so yeah… What about you?"

"We had to find someplace else to live too," she tells him, "My dad and I."

"What about your mom?"

MJ just shrugs and Peter doesn't insist, which she's grateful for. Wow, she's missed him way too much. This is probably bad, but she doesn't really care. They look at each other for a moment, and then back at their feet at the same time, and she feels stupid so she just stops things there before it gets worse. "Anyway, I'll see you on Monday then."

He smiles at her, and she has a hard time not smiling back and nods to him instead. "Right, yes, bye MJ."

"Bye, Peter."

She didn't mean to call him that, she rarely does, but now it's too late, and anyway it doesn't matter since he's already leaving towards his bus stop. He probably didn't even notice. She's being stupid.

In any case, considering everything that's been going on, today was a great day.

The weekend flies by with her helping out in a shelter near her place, and her dad still looking for a job. She meets up with her mom on Saturday night for some dinner, talking about stuff that doesn't matter and leaving out the rest. Her dad is refusing to see her mom, and MJ clearly sees that it hurts her, but what can she say?

All weekend she keeps an eye out in case Spider-Man makes his grand return in the streets, but he doesn't. It's weird, but she does feel worried for the guy. Now that she knows that Peter is safe, and _if_ they are not one and the same, then she really hopes he's alright too. After all he is definitely one of the good guys.

Iron Man – and Tony Stark – is everywhere. On the news, they call him the greatest hero of all times. Homages are organized all over the world for the fallen heroes of the Battle of Earth. MJ isn't much for it, but it does help people focusing on something. She's a bit put off by the fact that it's pretty much the only thing people are talking about though.

On Monday, back at school, she gets her new timetable and starts her new-but-not-so-new classes. It's fairly easy, she remembers pretty much everything, it's not been that long for her and the others who blipped, but their teachers are insistent that it's what's best for them. She shares her mathematics class with Ned and Peter, her chemistry class with Betty and Flash, her history class with everyone who blipped – one of the few good ideas of their teachers, which is to update them on what happened during these last five years. Then they all go to their Spanish class while she gets to her Italian class, and then it's lunchtime.

She sits with Ned and Peter again, and after a minute or so, she kind of tunes out their discussion about their new classmates – they seem pretty annoyed at someone named Brad for some reason, but she herself hasn't even noticed him yet. Then at some point, a girl she doesn't know stops by their table and tells them that there will be a quick ceremony later during the week to celebrate the fallen heroes that saved the Earth.

"If there's any piece of art or writing you want to share, feel free to drop it into the library, we've put a box there to collect and organize them." she adds with a nice smile, before moving to another table.

MJ glances at Ned, then at Peter, and there is something in their expressions she can't quite explain. Then Peter stands up a little too fast, knocking over his tray and slightly stumbling. He shares a look with Ned then leaves without a word. Ned mutters a barely audible 'sorry' to MJ's attention, grabs his and Peter's stuff and follows him out of the cafeteria.

Somehow, this makes her think about Peter when he had just lost his uncle, three and a half years, no, almost _eight_ years ago. Is he grieving for someone? He's mentioned his aunt was fine last time, but has he lost someone during the Blip? It is possible, MJ thinks, the casualties have been numerous, both when the Snap _and_ the Blip occurred.

She feels sad and sorry for him. She thinks in a way she is mourning someone as well. Her mom. It's easy, coming back to school, to forget how screwed up things still are. Realizing this is like a big fat slap in the face.

But it's only been 13 days. It _will_ get better. Eventually.

She spots him standing beside his locker twenty minutes later, as she's walking to her physics class. He is pressing his forehead on the cold metal of his locker door, and his fists are so clenched by his sides that his knuckles are white. She hesitates for a second, then leans her shoulder on the lockers, close enough for him to acknowledge her if he wants too, and far enough so that if he doesn't want to it's not awkward.

She watches as he takes a deep breath and opens the door of his locker. She takes his movement as an invitation to talk and so takes half a step closer to him.

"You OK there, Parker?" MJ asks quietly.

He slams the door of his locker a little too hard and quickly glances at her apologetically. He then just vaguely nods, sniffling a little, his eyes fixed on his feet. She doesn't say anything, still looking at him and his face he's obviously trying to hide. He must have mistaken her silence for her waiting for an answer, and so he forces himself to say: "Yeah, um, yes I'm fine."

He's so obviously not though. He finally meets her gaze heads on and here he is, with his red, puffy eyes, and she knows he's been crying and it breaks her heart. She wonders if he would like a hug. But knowing Ned, he probably got at least ten already since they left the cafeteria. Ned's a good friend. He's probably way better than her at these sort of things. She's too blunt, too harsh to be of any help, she's very aware of it.

So she doesn't say anything else. She nods too, and then takes a few steps to get around him and walk to her class. When she walks by him though, she stops for a second and gently bumps his shoulder with hers. She initially intended it to be just a bump, but it ends up being her pressing her shoulder against his for a few seconds, and even if it's small and probably doesn't mean much, it still makes her heart swell in her chest just to touch him. Especially since he actually seems to lean into her just the slightest, and turns his face to look at her. She can feel his breath on the sensitive skin on the side of her neck, and suddenly it's way too much for her.

"Alright I'll see you around then, loser." she says, a little louder than she expected, quickly removing her shoulder and walking past him without a look. She hears him release a small puff of air that might have been a chuckle, but she doesn't turn around to check. Her cheeks feel way too hot, no way in hell he's seeing her like this. What was she thinking? That was dumb.

She hopes she didn't screw everything up and make things awkward between them.

She probably did though.

She makes it to her class and sits at a random spot, crossing her arms above the table and hiding her face in it. She's the first one there, and she listens with her eyes closed as her classmates make their way inside, talking about random stuff. Nobody sits next to her. When she hears Mr Dell coming in she looks up, blinking her tired eyes away.

Just then someone moves the chair next to her, the only one free she notices quickly, and she turns and here he is with his puppy eyes, smiling sheepishly at her. He slightly waves his left hand as if to greet her, and she can't help herself and hard rolls her eyes at him.

He chuckles and then nods at the empty chair next to her. "Can I?"

"No, Parker, sit at Mr Dell's desk." she retorts with narrowing eyes, and he opens his mouth in shock like a fish out of water. He looks like such an idiot she can't keep a straight face for more than a few seconds. "Of course you can sit here, dork. There's no place anywhere else." she says with a smirk and he _blushes_.

Holy crap she made him blush. That's new. His cheeks are all flushed and it's so _adorable_ she immediately feels the urge to make fun of him for it. He must have seen the spark in her eyes because he quickly averts his gaze and sits down on the chair with a small pout. He knows she's about to laugh at him, and he's trying to act casual to make it seem like it doesn't affect him. How could she miss this dork so much?

"Thanks." he mutters, before clearing his throat, and she smirks again. He's avoiding her gaze, taking his stuff out of his bag, his shoulders strained as if preparing himself for what she's about to say.

"So, hopefully nothing much is new with physics uh?" she whispers and he turns to her, very clearly surprised.

"Um, uh, yes, right, yeah, hopefully no major discovery since the uh, yeah," he hesitates and she bites her lower lip to keep herself from smiling too much. "Wow, I must say I uh, I kinda thought you were gonna make fun of me again."

"Well, what can I say, I'm magnanimous."

"Right, thanks."

"Yeah, don't get used to it though."

"I won't." he nods, and he's keeping a straight face while smiling with his eyes, and she thinks to herself that might be her favorite Parker smile so far. Then Mr Dell starts the lesson and they both turn their attention to him and don't talk much for the rest of the class. At times their gazes meet, and then they turn away quickly, and it feels like a dumb little game of hot potato or something.

She likes it though. When the class is over and they part ways, they say goodbye to each other and finally she feels like they're actually becoming friends. She likes that. She likes that very much.

And something tells her he actually likes it as well, and that's even more exhilarating.

* * *

_Friendly reminder that comments are VERY DEEPLY appreciated nudgenudgewinkwink_


	6. Chapter 6

_Hello everyone!_

_This is the last chapter I've written so far (the next one is still a work in progress) so from now on the updates won't be as regular :) _

_Thanks for the reviews on yesterday's chapter :D_

* * *

67% sure

"Has anyone heard about Spider-Man since the Blip or...?"

MJ raises an eyebrow at Flash Thompson's question, surprised. She hadn't pinned him for a fan, at all. She glances at Peter, but his face doesn't show anything else but boredom. That she understands. Their history class could have been very interesting, but it's not. The man teaching it is very clearly still depressed from the Snap. Their old history teacher used to be great, but he blipped as well and is therefor not qualified to teach them blippers about what happened during the last five years. He could probably take the class with them actually.

Everyone who blipped should, really.

"I don't think this question is relevant, Mr Thompson, please, let's focus instead on –"

MJ tunes out the rest of his sentence, going back to drawing his face instead. Even Betty next to her seems bored and is doodling on her notebook absentmindedly. Which is a lot to say, Betty is usually very studious in class. MJ glances again at Peter, on the same row but across the room near the window, and isn't surprised to see his head gradually lean more and more on his hand. He isn't even trying to keep his eyes open. What a dork.

She kind of wants to draw him now, instead of Mr McBoring, but maybe that's not a good idea. Everyone knows she mostly draws people in crisis, and right now he is definitely not in crisis, so that would be suspicious. His face is relaxed, he must be quite comfortable sitting like that, half leaning on the wall with the shy sun of December heating the back of his head and his shoulders. It makes his hair look lighter, his face even sweeter and younger too.

She doesn't realize she's staring until the bell rings and his eyes open wide and fall on her. She looks away quickly and pretends to be very busy putting her stuff back in her bag. She's the first to leave the class, and when someone catches up to her she's almost afraid that it's him, but it's not.

It's Thompson.

"Hey, MJ wait up."

"What do you want?" she asks sharply, not slowing down at all.

"You're very observant," Flash states in an unusually hesitating voice, "so have _you_ seen Spider-Man anywhere or not?"

MJ stops and looks at him with narrowing eyes. "What do you care? I didn't think you were a fan."

"Well, with everything that's been going on, I just kinda wanted to, you know, make sure that the neighborhood's personal vigilante is still around you know?" He's looking at his feet and not acting douche-y at all, which is surprising. Now that she's watching him more closely, he actually looks different, clearly tired and somehow miserable.

She's been witnessing this a lot since the beginning of December. Earth is apparently getting better with each day passing, but people are still a mess. Emotionally.

Everyone's been touched by the Blip.

Even douche bags like Flash.

"I haven't seen him around no." she tells him, in a less severe voice. Flash's face drops even further so she adds: "But you know, maybe he's on holidays or something. He hasn't been seen these last five years, so maybe he blipped, then came back and decided to retire or something. To be fair, he probably kicked Thanos' ass alongside the Avengers, so that would make sense."

She doesn't add the other possibility she thought about. That Spider-Man died. That he was not Peter Parker and that he died trying to save the Earth. She's blunt and sharp, but she's not heartless. She doesn't like Flash but bringing him down would just be mean.

She is not, and never will be, a bully.

Flash stares at her in silence for a couple of seconds. He's surprised, clearly, but there's something else in his usually dull eyes. MJ isn't sure if it's relief or gratitude or something else. Then he nods and leaves without another word. He probably could learn a thing or two about politeness but whatever. She doesn't care. It's still humbling though, to realize that even people as dumb and full of themselves as Eugene Thompson can go through rough times too. She knew that, but it's still something to witness it.

It's snowing outside. In a couple of hours the Holiday break will start. MJ is planning on helping out in shelters all week. A new organization has been founded in Queens to help the over crowded shelters. There are still so many people that need help, and with the cold and the frenzy of the holidays, it's gotten even worse. MJ's plan is to volunteer and help out as much as she can. She's been invited at her mom's place for Christmas but she'd rather be with a bunch of strangers than with her mother's new family. And her dad's working anyway.

She gets to her Italian class and sits in the back.

Today is not a great day. It happens, every once in a while. Most of the time she's fine. She talks a lot more with Peter now. She eats with him and Ned every day at lunch. She jokes with him in physics class. She enjoys helping Blippers out during the weekends. She reads and draws and writes every chance she gets.

Sometimes though, it feels like she's drowning. She'd be fine, and then something sets it off. It can be anything, something she sees, hears, a simple thought crossing her mind. Suddenly she can barely breath, her stomach contorts on itself, she's shaking uncontrollably, and then all she can think is, _it's happening again_. She forces herself not to blink, because somehow she's convinced that if she _does_, she'll vanish again.

And she _knows_ these are just panic attacks. She's had her fair share of them since she was little. She knows how to handle them. But it's more difficult these days. She suspects it to be because of how completely destroyed her family is. So she holds on to the thought that she has friends now. Because she has. She walks every afternoon with Peter from the cafeteria to their physics class, they sit together and joke and talk about stupid stuff. She hangs out with Ned sometimes in the library after class, and enjoys crafting impossible theories to explain various mysteries with him. Last week Betty invited her at her place to study and then for a _sleepover_ afterwards. She has friends. She does.

She's not alone, Thanos has been destroyed, nothing is threatening the world anymore. Right?

"Hey."

MJ jumps, startled, and looks up. She's sitting on the floor in one of the deserted hallways near her locker. Peter is looking down at her with one of his shy smile, like he's afraid she's about to tell him to get lost or something. She wraps her arms more tightly around her knees. She can't get up yet. She's pretty sure if she tries to she'll fall over. Her legs are still too weak because of her stupid panic attack. It's subsiding though, finally. Maybe thanks to the look on Peter's face, or his simple presence here. His locker is on the other side of the building, next to their physics class. He is not here because he happened to walk around here to get somewhere. He came here because he was looking for her.

"You didn't make it to lunch," he tells her quietly, dancing on his feet awkwardly.

"Yeah I uh, wasn't really hungry." she lies without looking at him.

"Right," he nods, and she knows he doesn't believe her just from his tone. "Anyway, ready to go kick ass in physics? Mr Dell would be very disappointed to be missing his best students ever."

"Student or student_s_?" she retorts with a smirk. "Wow, you're full of yourself today, Parker. I thought we agreed last time that _I_ was the best since I beat you at that momentum test."

"By _half_ a point," he mumbles with a pout and she lets out a little laugh. "Come on, we're gonna be late."

With a smile, he holds his hand out to help her back on her feet. She hesitates a second then grabs it, her heart jumping in her chest when their skins touch. His hand is warm and strong around hers. She's taller than him, but somehow she suddenly feels very small. He helps her up and then lightly presses her hand in his before letting go.

"You're fine, OK?" he tells her, his brown eyes closely studying her face.

She feels a light blush spread across her cheeks and quickly looks away, nodding. She grabs her stuff and starts walking, ignoring the hard lump forming in her throat. She doesn't know how, but he seems to know exactly what was going on inside her head a few minutes ago. Maybe because he's been through that before too? She's obviously not the only person on Earth suffering from panic attacks because of Thanos.

They silently make their way to the class. She hasn't checked the time but they are actually early and not late. They sit at their usual table and wait in silence for a little while. Peter seems a bit agitated next to her though. First he's fidgeting with his pencil, then with the spirals of his notebook, then he's leaning back on his chair and balancing himself on two of its legs. When he starts clapping both his hands on his thighs, MJ lets out an irritated sigh and squints at him:

"Hyperactive much?" she scolds and Peter smiles apologetically at her before dropping the legs of his chair back on the floor. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing," he makes a face at her. "So do you have any plans for the Break?"

MJ narrows her eyes at him suspiciously. "Why?"

It's insane how easy it is to mess with this guy. Straightaway Peter looks at her like a deer caught in the headlights. "I um, I'm just like, asking I –"

"I'm messing with you, Parker." she cuts him with a smirk. And she's not someone who brags – or at least not about stuff like _that_ – but somehow she really wants to tell him the truth, and so she does. "I don't have any plans except helping out in shelters. I found this new charity that's been created to help people displaced by the Blip."

"Oh. Oh that's, that's great." he says, and for some reason he seems embarrassed, which she doesn't get. "You're not spending Christmas with your family?"

MJ hesitates for a moment before answering. Peter is looking at her with his brown puppy eyes, his whole attention on her, and that's what gets her to say the truth again – well, part of it. "My mom invited me to spend it at her place but… I'd rather spend my time helping out people that actually need me." She sees the shift in Peter's eyes and quickly moves the subject away from her family before he takes pity on her – it's really _not_ something she wants him to do: "Anyway, I don't care much really. What about you?"

And that's something she likes about him: he never, ever pries. He moves along with her, answers her question – he's spending Christmas with his aunt –, and then Mr Dell arrives and they focus on their lesson. Like most of her classes, this one is easy. She remembers pretty much everything since it hasn't been that long since they covered it, and she knows Peter feels the same way because they've talked about it. It's nice though, to get good grades without trying that much. Even if it means getting bored half the time.

"How come you never draw in Physics?" Peter whispers to her at some point and she takes her eyes off the corner of the desk she'd been staring at for a few minutes to frown at him. "What? You're clearly bored most of the time, and yet you don't draw, why not?"

"Who do you think you are, the Inquisition?" she retorts grumpily. She will _not_ admit the truth to him, ever. She will not say how self conscious she feels to draw and have him look. She usually doesn't care if people watch what she's drawing. Peter is not people though.

"No, just curious."

"I don't know I guess there isn't really much to draw here." she shrugs, avoiding his gaze. "You know, no people in crisis and stuff."

"I could pretend to be in trouble and you could draw me," Peter says playfully, and she can feel his eyes studying her face again, "that way you wouldn't look so miserable all the time."

MJ turns swiftly on her chair and glares at him. "What the hell Parker, _you're_ miserable." she snaps at him a little louder than expected. A few curious heads turn towards them but Mr Dell doesn't notice.

"Wow, great comeback." he chuckles and she grinds her teeth. He doesn't say anything else and pretends to focus back on what Mr Dell is saying, but the corners of his mouth are uplifted into a sly but discreet grin that has her more annoyed than she would admit.

So she starts thinking about ways to get back at him, beat him at his own little game because yes, she kind of is a sore loser. And there's one little idea that comes, and it's bold and harsh, and she's really not sure it's a good idea at all, but apparently that's what she's going with. She starts shaping the lines, and she's never drawn him before but she's watched enough of him for it to still be easy.

Next to her, Peter lets out a little satisfied puff of air and she bites her lower lip to prevent herself from smiling. What a dork. She's sitting in a way that prevents him to have a clear view of her paper sheet, but she doesn't risk a glance to see if he's looking or not. Her heart is beating a little too hard to her taste, and her cheeks are a little flushed, but she tries and ignores it, focusing on drawing instead.

That's what she does for the rest of the class. A couple of minutes before it ends, she's finally done. She looks at it, her arm still positioned so that Peter can't get a good view of it if he tries to look. She realizes that a lump has formed in her throat and suddenly her genius plan doesn't seem that good anymore. So she folds her sheet in two and slides it into her physics book. She then lets out a sigh that seems to catch Peter's attention immediately.

"Feeling better?" he asks her, and she turns a little to meet his curious gaze. She just shrugs and he adds: "Can I ask you what you drew or are you going to murder me if I do?"

She snickers and keeps looking at him blankly without a word.

"Right, I won't risk it then." he mumbles after a minute. She can't help herself and smirks at him, and he smiles back, and then they both stare at each other for a second before looking away a little awkwardly, and MJ's heart keeps pounding in her chest.

And then the bell rings, and the class is over, and they say goodbye to each other. When she leaves, she turns a little just to look back at him, and she meets his gaze and crap he was definitely watching her walk away, and she feels her cheeks burning and almost runs out of the building because she's so embarrassed. And her heart hasn't stopped _pounding_ in her chest the entire time and wow she definitely needs a break.

The drawing of a sad Spider-Man wondering what to do seems to be burning a hole in her backpack.

A couple of days later, it's Christmas Eve. MJ leaves her dad at around 5 pm and makes her way into the headquarters of that new charity that's been created at the end of November, and is financed by none other than Pepper Potts herself. That woman has been very active in trying to help out the world after the Blip. Like many others, but they're not as rich and influential so they don't make it to the front covers.

The charity is located in a cultural center in Brooklyn, she has to take a couple of buses to get there. It's a nice building, a banner has been hanged above the double doors inviting Blippers and people in difficulty to come and eat a warm meal for Christmas Eve. MJ steps inside, feeling a bit sheepish and out of place for some reason. Two people are talking in the lobby and she walks to them, taking her scarf off.

"Excuse-me? Hi, I'm uh, I'm here to volunteer?"

The woman with long hair turns to her and greets her with warm, genuine smile that somehow feels familiar. "Hi, you've come to the right place!" she says with enthusiasm, extending her hand for her to shake it. "Please, come with me I'll help you get started. I'm May by the way. What's your name?"

"I'm uh, Michelle. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise! It's always so refreshing to see young people like you come and help out." May tells her, leading her in the main room. Tables have been set everywhere, ready to welcome everyone. MJ sees a couple of guys setting out a buffet near the kitchen door where May seems to be taking her. "Alright! Michelle, let me introduce you, this is Maddie and James, they're taking care of setting the tables, over there is Harry, Genevieve and Curt who are in charge of the food, and somewhere around here is… ah, there he is, my nephew Peter."

She follows her gaze and there he is, staring wide-eyed at her from across the room, near the gigantic Christmas tree he's currently decorating. And she's stunned, yes, because what were the odds right – especially since he told her he was spending Christmas with his aunt, which, in retrospective, isn't a lie, but still. She did tell _him_ she was volunteering in shelters. Why didn't he tell her he was too?

But also his _face_. It's absolutely hilarious. If he were a cartoon, his jaws would have dropped to the floor and his eyes would be out of their eye-sockets. They almost are. She hides her mouth behind her hand to stifle her laugh because really, _his face_. What a dork.

"MJ? Wh-what are you doing here?" Peter asks, walking hesitantly towards them.

"Oh, you guys know each other?" May retorts with a curious glance between the two of them.

"Uh, yeah, yes, she's uh, we're in the uh, the same uh…"

"Class." MJ finishes for him with a smirk, and his cheeks are so red she has to hide her chuckle again.

"Wait, are _you_ the mysterious MJ he's been telling me all about?" May asks with a mischievous smile, still glancing between the two of them like she's watching a ping pong game or something.

And she would be embarrassed, and completely mortified, if it weren't for Peter's reaction. His brown eyes double in size and he whines indignantly at his aunt. "_May!_"

"Wow, you talk about _me_, Parker?" she teases him, and she feels a weird rush inside her chest when he turns back to her with panicked eyes.

"What, no! I mean, yes, I mean I just –"

"Anyway," MJ cuts him, to put him out of his dorkish misery. "What can I do to help?"

She meets May's playful gaze as the woman answers with enthusiasm: "Well, you can help Mr Peter here with the ornaments, and then there's a box in the back with gifts for the kids so if you could set these up under the tree, that'd be great."

"Right, let's do this then," MJ nods.

"Thanks May," Peter grumbles as his aunt leaves to go talk with a newly arrived volunteer. "OK, come on then."

He leads her to the Christmas tree and a big box of old non matching ornaments. For a couple of minutes they hang them up in silence, and then she can't help herself and asks lightly: "So, why didn't you tell me?"

Peter is standing on a chair to reach for the highest branches, and he doesn't look down at her when he finally answers: "I don't know I… didn't want you to think that I was, I don't know, bragging?"

"Dude, did you think _I_ was bragging?"

"No, of course not!" he immediately assures, meeting her gaze with an indignant face that has her chuckle.

"Well there you go then," she smirks at him and he looks down at his feet, his cheeks a little flush again. She wonders if he's got a skin condition or something. For some reason though, it reminds her of when he used to talk to Liz Toomes back in Sophomore, and that thought effectively sends weird tickles in her belly, and she forces herself to focus on her task instead of thinking too much about it. Nope. Not going down that road, nope.

"I guess I…" he hesitates again, and she can't help herself and glances up at him. "I just didn't want you to think that I was just, I don't know, making small talk or something."

She raises an eyebrow at him, confused. "But we were, weren't we?"

"No!" he exclaims, somehow offended, and she stares at him in surprise. "I mean, yeah maybe but, it's not just, I mean, it's not _just_ that it's… we're, we're friends right?"

He's staring back now, and she feels like she's about to drown in these deep brown eyes, without knowing if it's a good or a bad thing. And her heart, it feels like it's about to explode, and she doesn't think she's been that nervous in her entire life before. But he's waiting, and she is _not_ going to bail on him because he clearly doesn't deserve it. So she takes the leap. "Yeah," she nods, and her voice sounds to her like it's coming from far, far away, "yeah, I guess we are."

His sheepish smile makes her heart miss a beat. "Cool," he nods quietly, "That's… yeah."

She can't help her chuckle because god they're just a bunch of dorks aren't they? Then he laughs with her, and for the rest of the night it _is_ small talk between them, but it feels so good to actually know that it's because they are friends. And they have a great time. As always it is very rewarding to help out people in need, and the smiles on the little kids' faces at the sight of the Christmas tree and the gifts under it follow MJ late into the night.

When they're done cleaning after the party's over, May insists on giving MJ a lift back to her place. She sits in the back of the car with Peter, and it's a little awkward but not in a bad way. "Will we see you on New Year's Eve?" May asks when she stops in front of her building.

And MJ doesn't hesitate. She smiles at the woman, somehow in this evening spent with her she's grown to like her _a lot_, and nods: "Yes, absolutely." And then Peter and his aunt are smiling wide at her, and she thinks to herself that it must be running in their family or something. These huge smiles that light up the world and make you feel all warm and cozy inside.

She's very excited to go back to the cultural center later that week, on the 31st. Ned is there too, and the three of them have a great time helping out setting the tables and the buffet. At around 10 pm, May tells them to just go and have fun with the others, and so they do. They dance like idiots and eat too much chocolate. Midnight comes and goes, and somehow MJ finds herself sitting in the bleachers with Peter, sipping from a lukewarm juice box and watching Ned dance with a herd of kids definitely on a sugar rush.

She quickly notices though that Peter seems a bit down, and so she glances at him with narrowing eyes and asks: "What's up?"

She watches as he bites his lower lips and shrugs: "Nothing, I don't know." His eyes are hovering above the dance floor but MJ knows he's not really watching. She stays quiet for a moment, studying his face, wondering what's going on. He seems tired, sad, grim, when he was his usual happy hyperactive dork twenty minutes ago.

She doesn't like seeing him like this. "So new year uh?" she says after a while, her gaze back on dancing Ned. "2024… Man, the last six years really just went by like…" She punctuates her words with a snap of her fingers, and watches as his face stills and the corner of his mouth shudders. _Crap_. "Sorry, too soon?" she apologizes with a grimace.

He lets out a little chuckle and shrugs again. "No, I don't now… this whole thing, it's just so…"

"Unfair? Yeah."

"I just, I wish I could do more."

MJ bites her lip, somehow overwhelmed by the guilt and sadness she can feel in his voice. "Peter, hey, you're doing your best, believe me. And I'm pretty sure your best is a lot more than most people anyway."

He smiles sadly, his gaze still in the distance. "Thanks, MJ." And she thinks he's not going to say anything else, until he does, a couple of minutes later. "I'm just… I'm just so _afraid_ all the time."

His shoulders droop and he hides his face in one of his hands, the other a clenched fist on his knee. MJ hesitates for a second. She thinks about grabbing his hand, but she feels too awkward for this and settles for a bump in the shoulder instead.

"Yeah, I feel you buddy."

And he lets out a little chuckle, but he's still not looking at her and she definitely hates seeing him like this. So she takes a big breath. "OK, I'm gonna tell you something now, and if you ever say I did I'll kill you alright?"

Peter props his elbow on his knee and his chin on his palm and looks at her with surprised eyes. She holds his gaze blankly and after a minute he simply nods.

"Alright." she sighs, her cheeks reddening a little. "It's OK to be afraid, because fear is like a super power. It can make you stronger and faster and cleverer."

He's smiling now, looking up at her with playful eyes as he points out: "Isn't that like a Doctor Who quote or something?"

MJ just stares at him daggers and he chuckles again, shaking his head with half a smile still on his lips. Then he grabs his juice box from the floor and bumps her shoulder with his. "So, to embracing our fears then uh?" he tells her, raising his juice box at her.

"And to doing our best," she adds with a smirk, and they drink to it.

And she doesn't put two and two together because she's too busy dealing with the next awful blow the Universe is throwing at her, but a few days later, Spider-Man is back.

* * *

_I'm really satisfied with this chapter, I think it's my favorite I've written so far!_

_What do you guys think?_

_In any case thanks for reading!_

_Until next time._


	7. Chapter 7

67% sure

_January 24th, 2024_

He's back. I'm not exactly sure since when, I got a little distracted, but he's back.

Spider-Man is back.

New York City is safe again. Roughly. Just kidding, it's still a mess, but people are quite happy to see the weirdo in a skintight red and blue suit swinging between skyscrapers again. I get it.

I feel it too.

There's that stupid online journal the Daily Bugle that keeps lashing out at him, but otherwise he's getting good press. He gives people hope. It's nice.

So do I still think Peter Parker is Spider-Man?

To be honest, I don't know. And I'm not really in the mood to try and figure it out right now. Mid-terms are starting next week, but that's not the worse. Our landlord is threatening to kick us out because my stupid ass dad didn't pay the rent for the last six weeks because he'd rather spent his money on stupid ass booze and whatnot.

So yeah. Goodbye charity work, hello very nice supermarket work.

I'm working everyday after school, and all day Saturday and Sunday, to try and pay our, no, _my_ _dad's_ debt off.

Talk about things being fair uh?

I'm mad as hell. I feel like a stupid rebellious teenager saying this, but I hate them all and all I want is to be alone. My mom wants me to come live with her perfect little family, as if that's ever going to happen. I tolerate them once a month for dinner, but that's the best I can do. I'm sick and tired of everyone and everything.

Of my parents using me in their fight.

Of just being collateral damage that they don't even care about.

Of being ashamed to have to work this stupid job to survive.

I'm back to being MJ the smartass that talks to no one. I pretend like I don't care, like I'm just being me, like these past months opening up a little more each day were just a fluke or something. They all suspect something's up. Peter's asked me multiple times what was going on. Ned and Betty, too. But what can I say? I'm just so ashamed and _angry_. I'm not lashing out on him, on _them_. I'd rather stay away than contaminate their lives with my stupid existential crisis.

I miss him though. Way too much for my own good, to be honest.

Stupid Parker and his kindness and his smiles and his stupid _face_.

* * *

_March 17th, 2024_

So it's been a while. I don't have much time these days. But get this.

There was a reunion/gathering/dinner last night in that cultural center in Brooklyn where May Parker helps out people displaced by the Blip. I wasn't there, I was working, but guess who showed up?

Yep, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Parker. Or, you know, Spider-Man. Weird coincidence right? There are plenty of shelters still in service six months after the Blip, but he happens to show up at that one in particular where Parker's _aunt_ is in charge?

This stinks my good lady, it does.

At what percentage were we? It's been a while uh. The last time I wrote one in here was before my stupid trials – that were a huge fail to be honest – before the Snap, before everything.

**64%**

Is _he_ Spider-Man?

I had stopped wondering, when he wasn't around after the Blip. But now…

I feel somehow very guilty and nervous when I think about Peter these days. We're not that close anymore, well, we still hang out during lunch sometimes, and sit next to each other in physics, but something's changed. And I know it's my fault, really, I should have just told him what was going on with my dad and everything, but I couldn't. That's probably why I feel guilty.

There's something new though. There's this guy, Brad, he was younger than us but didn't blip so he's a junior too now. He's been talking to me a lot recently. He's nice, a good listener, we talk sometimes in between classes and in PE.

And Parker, he sucks at keeping secrets – or does he? –, his emotions always show so perfectly on his stupid face. And I've noticed it, because it's so obvious even though he's trying to act like it's no big deal, but he _hates it_. He hates seeing me talking with Brad. He's all frowning and grumpy and staring daggers at the poor dude when it happens, and I know I shouldn't, but I do feel absolutely and irrevocably thrilled about this.

I don't know why exactly I'm writing all this. While this _is_ my Spider-Parker notebook, it should probably _not_ become my 'ohmygoshdoesPeterParkerhaveacrushonme' notebook. Right?

Does he, though?

* * *

_April 23rd, 2024_

He's asked me what my favorite flower was today. He was so nervous it was actually ridiculous. And cute. Damn you Parker.

I told him it was the black dahlia. He looked at me with wide eyes and asked me, '_Like the murder?_' and yep, like the murder. I'm surprised he remembers it though. I did do a piece on that particular subject in history a couple of years ago – no, goddammit, I still get this wrong, _eight years ago_ when we were Freshmen. Longest High School period of the universe.

In other news, he still disappears every once in a while, and since the beginning of the month rushes out of physics every afternoon like he's got the devil after him or something. And Spider-Man is very active these days. He's cheerful and focused and still acts like a dork when we talk. Peter, I'm talking about Peter. He's still pissed when I'm with Brad, I see it in his brown puppy eyes, and yes, I admit it, I love it. I'm not forcing it or anything, but I do enjoy it.

He's _jealous_.

Wow, wait a second, something just occurred to me. What if he's jealous because _I'm_ talking to Brad, and not because _Brad_ is talking to _me_? Well, that would be an interesting, and definitely _unexpected_, turn of events wouldn't it?

I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a crush on Brad though. Like, 85% sure, at least. But I might be wrong, who knows? That's a higher probability than him being Spider-Man. I'd say we're roughly around 67% by now. There's at least a 33% chance he's not Spider-Man because 1. He's a freaking teenager, 2. In a city of 8.6 million people, the odds really are not in his favor no matter what I've observed, and 3. Spider-Man went to _space_ and I'm pretty sure Parker didn't because otherwise he would clearly be better in astronomy. The last point might a little far fetched but whatever.

I rest my case your Honor.

Also, Mr Harrington told us yesterday, they're organizing a science trip in _Europe_ at the beginning of summer for some of us. And things are better now, I kicked my dad's butt – metaphorically – a couple of weeks ago and he's finally owning to what he did. And since I'm still working three afternoons a week plus Saturday nights, I will probably have the money and be able to go. He's going too, I heard him talk about it with Ned.

I must say, I _really_ want to go. Nice vacation abroad. Don't forget the VPN. Venice, Paris. Nice cities to visit. Quite romantic. _Yeesh_. Can't believe I just wrote that.

He's turning me into a big pile of _fluff_, that's just _so_ rude. Exciting. Terrifying.

* * *

_June 26th, 2024_

So we're leaving tomorrow. I'm supposed to be packing right now, but screw this I'd rather write useless pieces of information in there instead.

I talked with Peter and Ned today. I heard them talking about some plan about Europe, I walked up to them and Peter was all like '_don't say anything!_' and closing his notebook real fast and acting like Fake Smooth Parker or whatever, and I'm really curious what that was all about. They rambled something about collecting spoons, and that was so obviously a lie. A very crappy lie to say the least.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this trip will help me figure things out. About Spider-Man. Not Parker. Well, I don't know. Maybe. We'll see. What I'm trying to say is, if Spidey's around NYC during the trip, then Parker is definitely not him, but if he _isn't_ around, then I don't know.

If he isn't, then I'll ask him about it. Ask Peter. When we get back. Yes. If Spider-Man isn't seen in New York City while we're abroad, I'll go and ask Parker what's his deal. I'll do it. Yup.

I'm not taking the notebook for the trip, I wouldn't want to lose it or something. So consider this entry the last one before the **TRUTH**. Yeah, sounds like a plan.

These lines are therefor my binding contract that I _will_ get to the truth by the end of next week, whether it's because there's proof that Parker is Spider-Man, or proof that he isn't. I swear it on Mr Hairy Beary's life. There.

* * *

"So do you want to sit next to me or...?"

"I already said yes to Betty but thanks for the offer," MJ says, and Brad nods understandably. He opens his mouth to say something else but Mr Harrington beats him to it:

"You can sit next to me Brad, I think everyone else already has a partner."

MJ hides her chuckle behind a cough and walks up to Betty, leaving Brad to deal with their teacher. She's waiting next to a window overlooking the airport runway. Parker and Leeds are whispering to each other to her left, MJ wonders what they're talking about.

"Ready for the big trip?" Betty asks her with a smile that MJ gives her back without a second thought. She feels good, relaxed. Happy to get away from everything even if it's just for five days.

"Yep, this is exciting." she nods, as Yasmin and Zoha, two girls she knows from her Italian class meet with them. They all talk for a little while about the trip and what they want to do once they get to Venice, and then Paris, and MJ has a hard time concealing her smile. Then at some point she decides she really doesn't have to. She's never left the States before, she's going with her _friends_ on a trip to _Europe_, if there ever was a better time to just let go and have fun, maybe that was it.

"Hey Parker! How much blood did you donate to afford this trip?"

Too bad Eugene Thompson is coming too, though. That might be one of, if not the only, low point of that trip. There are only twelve of them going, plus Mr Harrington and Mr Dell, what were the odds of stupid Flash coming too? But it's alright. It's surprising that Flash is coming, with his parents being obnoxiously rich and all, but everyone was entitled to this trip, so yeah.

Finally it's time to get on board. When she gets inside the plane, Peter and Ned are already seated, and Flash is bothering Parker again, a glass of champagne in his hand: "Yo, Parker, this is called an airplane, it's like the buses you're used to except it flies over the poor neighborhoods instead of driving through them."

Sometimes MJ wonders if the endless teasing doesn't actually hide Flash's feelings for Peter or something. Because wow, that guy never stops. There's a stewardess next to him and MJ doesn't miss her chance: "Ma'am? He blipped so technically he's 16, not 21."

"I'll take that." the woman nods, grabbing Flash's drink with a polite smile. The others are laughing at him and the idiot obviously starts complaining, chasing the flight attendant out of sight:

"She's lying, I don't even know this girl!"

MJ turns back to Peter and Ned who are laughing too, and nods at them with a smile, then gets to her seat with a nice feeling of accomplishment. Thompson will not be a problem during this trip. She knows how to deal with that dumb dumb. She barely even has time to get comfortable in her seat next to Betty though, because suddenly Ned is there talking to them about how Peter needs to swap seats with Betty because of a perfume allergy – _lame_ – and then Mr Harrington overhears him and it becomes a little game of musical chairs or something and somehow everyone is switching seats. MJ ends up siting next to Brad, and really it's no big deal.

Behind her she hears Ned ask Betty if she's ever played _Beast Slayers_, and she suppresses a smile when she hears her friend's blank '_nope_'. She could probably swap seats with Ned and still sit next to Betty like originally planned but it doesn't look like it's gonna happen. She smirks internally at the idea of Parker siting next to Harrington. Perfume allergy, _right_. Lamest excuse ever for switching seats.

She doesn't linger on the fact that he wanted to switch seats to sit next to _her_.

Because that's just distracting.

"I have a dual headphone adapter if you want to watch a movie." Brad tells her with a nice smile, bringing her back to reality.

"Only if it's depressing, or hilarious." she retorts, wondering what _that_'s all about. She doesn't really get why Brad is so nice to her all the time but whatever. They end up watching movies almost the entire time, and the 9-hour flight goes by in a flash. At some point she goes to the bathroom and Peter's there, he opens the door, sees her and closes the door again, and she stands there like an idiot wondering what he's up to. Then she realizes the second bathroom is empty so she doesn't wait up. But that was weird. What a dork.

When they get to Venice, somehow Betty and Ned are a thing, so there's that. When she asks her about it, Betty tells her they got to talking on the plane and found out they have a lot in common. This is unexpected. Parker gets held up in security after they get their luggage, and he meets them at right about the same time Mr Harrington is starting to panic about losing another student.

A boat is waiting for them at the airport, they all embark and off they go. MJ sits at the front, enjoying the warm summer sun. And it's amazing. The sightings are gorgeous, she doesn't even get seasick which is a plus. She doesn't think she's ever been that excited and happy before. Another plus, catching Peter staring at her and then quickly looking away when their eyes meet. She loves it, that little heart back-flip she gets whenever it happens. She's a lost cause, she knows it.

Unsurprisingly – Mr Harrington is known for being kind of a crappy organizer –, the hotel they're staying at is a bit, well, a _lot_ shabby, but who cares. MJ can't wait to go out again and explore the city. She intends to take advantage of every little moment she has out of her ordinary life. She's been needing this since before the Blip, she thinks. A vacation.

"OK everybody, drop your bags off," Mr Dell instructs over the complaints of pretty much everyone about the state of the hotel. "We're gonna meet at the Da Vinci Museum at 3. Let's go!"

"_¡Vamonos!_" Mr Harrington adds, and MJ can't help herself and sighs.

"It's '_Andiamo'_," she corrects and a few people snicker.

"_Andiamo!_"

She must give that to Mr Harrington, he is definitely not the most competent at his job, but he _is_ enthusiastic. "There you go!"

"When you're in Rome, you do as the Romans do, when in Venice, your socks get wet!"

After that, they all get to San Marco Polo's piazza, and behave like perfect little American tourists for a couple of hours. And it's amazing. The place is crowded, it's hot but not as stifling as back home, there's pigeons _everywhere_, she's delighted to hear people speaking Italian – and tons of other languages too – all around her. Brad sticks with her for some time, but after a while she ditches him and goes out looking for Peter.

Yes, she might have drunk a couple of espresso – or more. Yes, she might be _a little_ over-caffeinated, but she doesn't care. She hasn't really talked to him since they left New York and well, she does plan to enjoy every second of this vacation, and being with Peter will definitely be enjoyable, she knows it.

Wow, that was some straightforward thinking.

She's _definitely_ a lost cause, isn't she?

She spots him from the window of the cafe she's been hanging out in for the last half hour. He's carrying a little bag and smiling to himself like a cute dork. He jumps and quickly hides it behind his back when she runs to him and catches his attention with that wonderful word she's just learned:

"Boh!"

"What?" he asks, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"Boh," she repeats as they resume walking, "It's the most perfect word in the world, Italians created it and I've just discovered it."

"What does it mean?"

"That's the thing it can mean a million thing," she explains enthusiastically, "it can mean _'__I don't know'_, '_Get out of my face'_, '_I don't know _and_ get out of my face'. _It's the best thing Italy's ever created except for maybe espresso."

"Oooh, so you've been drinking espresso." he points out with a smirk and she just shrugs with a light '_meh_'. They're walking up some stairs and as they reach the top, a man in an especially ugly shirt and baseball cap approaches them with one of those single rose bouquet/tourist scam you can find in every big city around the world.

"Hey, German? American. A rose for you?" he tells Peter, nodding to MJ.

And these guys, they're usually quite tough to get rid of, but MJ raises a dismissive hand and retorts a simple 'Boh' that has the man put down his flowers and leave with a disgruntled face. Peter looks impressed, and MJ can't help herself being especially satisfied by the look on his face. "Boh is my new superpower, it's like the anti-aloha, I was born to say this word." she tells him, squinting in the summer sun. She then nods to the little bag he's still trying to hide and asks breezily: "So what's in the bag?"

"Oh uh…" Peter looks down at it, hesitating half a second before shrugging. "Boh."

"Nice." she nods at him like, '_I see what you did there_', and Peter grins happily. They keep walking together, going down the stairs now to reach a dock near the canal, and MJ feels elated to just be there with him. Unlike at school she feels more confident and comfortable around him, which is definitely a step up – even if most of the time she acts casual and smooth, it's just a facade and she's actually mostly nervous around him. But unlike _him_, she hides her emotions pretty well.

She spots Betty and Ned in a gondola on the canal, and maybe that'd be cool to try with Peter, but she doesn't think she's there yet. Doesn't have the guts to suggest it. _Yet?_ Then she sees a bunch of crabs rushing out of the water and she takes her phone out to take a picture. "Whoa, cool!"

She turns to Peter behind her and smiles brightly at him, and he smiles back one of his famous Parker smiles that always have her melt on the spot, and she feels a jolt of happiness in her heart. This is good. This is _great_. They're going somewhere, she can feel it.

And then it all goes sideways.

The water starts moving, creating bigger waves than before. The crabs are still rushing out, and MJ stands up, suspicion and apprehension creeping down her neck. Something's wrong. Just as this thought makes its way inside her brain, there's a sudden violent explosion of water in the canal that make the dock under her shoes vibrate.

Her gaze immediately goes to Betty and Ned that are still in the middle of the canal on their gondola. She watches in horror as the tidal wave created by the explosion knocks out the man that was stirring them. Her friends manage to hold on as the gondola come towards MJ and Peter. It crashes on the dock in between them and she grabs Betty's hand as they both scramble out and over the gondola.

"You guys OK?" she hears Peter ask in the midst of screams and cries of terror.

The four of them go to reach for the stairs to flee, but then something make them turn. MJ watches in horror as what can only be described as a freaking gigantic _water monster_ arises from the canal with a rumble that makes her teeth clench. This is a nightmare. She's never found herself in line of danger like this. She's watched helplessly as her friends' lives were threatened in DC, but this, this is very different.

"Go, just go!"

She doesn't need to be told twice. She grabs Ned's elbow and they start running. The rush of adrenaline comes crashing and she's surprised at how calm and focused she feels. She's scared out of her mind, but it doesn't paralyze her or make her do stupid things, it actually helps her use the more pragmatic side of her personality.

"We need to get away from the canals, hurry!" she tells Ned and Betty as they run, and the both of them nod. That's when she realizes Peter is not with them. "Wait! Where's Peter?"

She stops in her tracks, heart dropping in her chest, but Ned quickly grabs her arm and assures fiercely: "Don't worry about him, I'm sure he's safe, come on!"

"But…"

"MJ come on!" Betty begs, eyes filled with tears. Another teeth clenching scream erupts behind her and that's what finally gets her moving, her mind racing as they run in the small streets of Venice, telling everyone they meet to get away from the canals and hide. And hoping Parker the idiot isn't off being a hero or something.

Oh but that would be so like him though.

How do you get away from a water monster in a city with canals instead of roads?

They run for a good five minutes without looking back, then stop when they reach a small piazza and Betty suggests they take shelter in the gigantic church at the end of it. It's either that or a luxurious shoe store, MJ notices. They ponder for a second, and that's when MJ realizes the screaming have stopped.

"Do you think it's gone?" she asks, shivering despite herself. Everything is suspiciously quiet, so Ned grabs his phone and looks for updates. It's all over the news already. It seems like some weird guy with a round aquarium-like helmet made it disappear thanks to some green magic or something.

The world is so freaking crazy it's actually insane.

"We need to find the others." she says after a while, "it's 3:15, we were supposed to meet at the Da Vinci museum at 3, they're probably there, let's go."

When they get to the museum, they find everyone, including Peter. They all seem shaken up, but despite the fact that they witnessed the final fight and almost got crushed by a bell tower, they're completely fine. MJ resists the urge to punch Peter in the arm for scaring her shitless and just acknowledges his presence with a nod. She notices he's completely soaked though. Did he fall in a canal or what? She doesn't ask. She's a bit mad at him, to be honest.

Mr Harrington and Mr Dell decide that the day is over and they all head back to the hotel. MJ is a bit disappointed, but she keeps it to herself. They get to their rooms, shower and change, then dinner, and after that they all hang out in the common room of the hotel. Unsurprisingly, all anyone can talk about is what happened this afternoon.

"BuzzFeed says there's a sailor named Morris Bench who was exposed to an experimental underwater generator and got hydro powers." Flash says, pacing the room, eyes on his phone.

"Yeah, you should definitely believe everything you read on the internet." MJ points out sarcastically.

"Spider-Man could take him." Flash retorts and MJ rolls her eyes. She's siting on the second to last step of the stairs. Ned and Betty are looking at updates on Ned's computer, Yasmin and Zoha are trying out the Venetian masks they bought, Brad is watching the news, Flash is being his usual obnoxious self. And Peter's on the phone with May, behind her. Should she tell him to say hi from her? Probably not, she hasn't seen her in a long time. It's a shame, she likes May.

"Who is that guy?" Betty asks, as they all watch the news footage of the monster and Bubble-Head man for the thousandth time.

"He's like Iron Man and Thor rolled into one." Brad says with awe and MJ almost rolls her eyes.

"He's alright," Flash snorts, "He's no Spider-Man."

There it is again. "What is it with you and Spider-Man?"

"What?" Flash tilts, "He's just awesome okay? He protects the neighborhood and you know he's inspiring, he inspires me to be a better man." As he talks, MJ sees Peter in the corner of her eye standing there with his arms folded across his chest, and seriously she's never seen him like this, what is that, a superhero pose? And then there it is again, Flash's repressed feelings for Parker or something: "What's up dickwad? Thought you drowned." he shoots at him with a wink.

Peter's disgruntled face is everything.

"Sounds like his name is Mysterio," Brad says, ignoring Flash.

"'_L'uomo del misterio_' is Italian for 'man of mystery' they don't actually know who he is." MJ explains. She still thinks Bubble-head man sounds better though.

"Mysterio..." Ned trails off, and then both him and Betty say 'Cool name' at the same time, and look at each other with googly eyes like it's the best feeling in the world and clearly MJ doesn't get it. She doesn't get the chance to think about it though, because then Peter is talking to her.

"So, how much of that did you actually see?" he asks shyly, pointing to the TV.

"Not much I was… running."

"Right me too I was also running… away." Smooth, Parker, real smooth. He's not looking at her anymore, and she wonders once again what he _actually_ did. She looks back to the TV, thinking he's not going to say anything else, but he actually does. "So Paris tomorrow? Go to the Eiffel Tower, should be great."

She kind of wants to ask him what he's up to because somehow he looks like a man with a plan, but she settles for something less cocky because she's not really feeling it right now. The espresso have worn off, apparently. "I read it was secretly build as a mind antenna to create an army of the insane."

And as always when she tells him something like this, the only thing that comes out of his mouth is a small 'Oh' that has her smirk. She quickly adds, looking up to him with a grin: "Which is why it's my favorite destination of the whole trip."

And he chuckles and gives her that genuine Parker smile, and her heart does a back flip in her chest as they stare at each other like two smiling idiots for a split second too long. And then they look away at the same time, and her heart is pounding again, and she has to take a deep breath to calm down.

Yep, they're _definitely_ going somewhere.

And it's as exciting as it is terrifying.

* * *

_If you read this, please comment. I have no idea if people are reading or not LOL it is a lonely existence. _


	8. Chapter 8

67% sure

So it turns out they _are_ going somewhere, and that somewhere is Prague.

"Tour company called, they upgraded us!" Mr Harrington explains with his usual enthusiasm, "You should have heard me on the phone with them, I really gave them hell."

"All I heard was crying," Mr Dell retorts, but nothing can shatter his colleague's eagerness apparently. He encourages them to grab their bags and follow him to their ride.

MJ downs the rest of her tea – she's never drinking coffee again, she's spent an awful night and she's pretty sure it has to do with the couple of espresso she drank yesterday, and not the remembrance of the water monster or her very squeaky, very uncomfortable bed. She takes her backpack and purposefully ignores Brad who's offering to take her second bag. She knows he's probably just trying to be nice, but if he thinks for one second she's gonna let him carry her bag then he clearly doesn't get her.

She catches Peter's eye, and notices he's wearing her favorite stupid pun t-shirt. _If you believe in telekinesis, please __raise my__ hand_. It's dumb. She likes it. He seems disappointed, and she gets it. She would have loved to go to Paris. From what he told her the night before, he seemed to be looking forward to it too.

But Prague is nice as well. Kafka was from Prague. There's also that Astronomical Clock Tower that's pretty famous. She remembers reading that the man that designed it had been blinded by some city councilors with a hot poker to prevent him from building a similar one somewhere else. And there's the Charles Bridge too. Haunted by ghosts. Pretty famous. Not Eiffel Tower famous, but still.

Should be fun.

They're going there by bus. It's an approximately 9-hour drive, so that's kind of a bummer, but she takes advantage of it and reads. Brad offered to sit next to her but she declined because really, 9 hours sitting next to Brad _again_? No thanks. He's nice, but sometimes way too chatty for her. So he's sitting in front of her and glances at her from time to time, and she chooses to ignore him. She's starting to suspect what's up with him being so nice to her all the time, and she is _not_ going to encourage him.

Parker sat at the far end of the bus, on the row opposite to his best friend. Ned has now merged with Betty so that the two of them became a creepy monster with four arms, four legs and two heads. It shall be called 'Netty'. Netty keeps texting itself and really, it's just weird, MJ thinks. She wonders what Peter's take is on all this. No way in hell she's ever asking him though. She will _not_ ask Peter Parker what he thinks about _couple_ things.

She's even heard Netty talk about _matching outfit__s_. And wow, she likes Ned, and she likes Betty, but these two together are just _weird_. She can't help herself and wonders, hypothetically speaking of course, if her and a hypothetical dork would hypothetically be like these two creeps. She desperately holds on to the hope that they would absolutely not. Hypothetically speaking still. Obviously.

MJ realizes she's been reading the same paragraph for the last couple of minutes and shakes her head, tired of herself. She really needs to get a grip.

After a four-hour long drive, their spooky bearded 'chauffeur' Dimitri stops the bus at a tiny gas station in a tiny village in the Austrian Alps, and allows them a ten-minute break. Mr Dell's tiny bladder seems grateful. They gather inside the very small shop that sits next to the gas station, and to MJ's distaste Flash is live-streaming the whole thing. She really doesn't get that guy. And she's been a bit bored for the last hour or so, having finished her book, so she gives into the temptation to tease the idiot.

"–I'm so into other people's culture, and so like –" She watches as he grabs a plastic bag and puts it in front of his phone, "What are these? Are these chips?"

"It's a clear bag, it's obviously chips," MJ quips, reaching for the bag and narrowing her eyes at it, "in fact, it says '_chips_' on it, in English."

Flash snatches the bag out of her hand, glaring at her – but not too much, she suspects he's somehow a bit scared of her. "Come on! This thing with their chips it's just – you need to understand that this is my living and you're messing up with –"

"You're still live." MJ cuts him with a smirk and Flash's eyes widen in shock.

"Oh no no no…"

Mr Harrington chooses this moment to show up and grab Thompson's phone and look at it with interest. Flash tries to pry the phone off the teacher's hands but MJ tells him he's still live and Mr Harrington waves at the camera with a goofy smile and an '_Oh hi Flash mob!_' that might be _the_ highlight of the trip so far. Water monsters are so overrated anyway.

MJ's still snickering ten minutes later when they all get back on the bus. They switch seats. She ends up sitting behind Mr Dell, on the same row as Netty the monster. Parker is at the far front – first all the way to the back, now all the way to the front, he's such a weirdo – Brad is finally keeping his distance with her, which she's grateful for. Everyone is snacking on the things they bought at the gas station and the volume of conversation is way louder than it was before. MJ picked up another book from her second bag in the hold, and gets herself settled in it while snacking on the 'exotic chips' she bought at the gas station. Eugene would be proud. He's still sulking like a little kid on the front seat behind Dimitri.

Poor puppy.

She's zoning out the noise of the others having fun for a little while, but then Zoha says something that catches her attention: "Did you just punch Flash?"

"No!" Peter's voice retorts, and MJ looks up, curious. He's standing in the middle of the aisle with some glasses she's never seen him wear before. She doesn't have time to register anything else because suddenly the bus darts on the right, propelling her and everyone else on the left. It hits the protective railway on the side of the road in a scraping metal noise that makes her teeth clench and her stomach drop in dread.

"Peter! Plant your fanny in that seat and buckle up right now!" she hears Harrington say in an unusual stern voice.

"Look at the baby mountain goats!"

Somehow everyone gasps and all of a sudden they're all gawking and standing to look outside, but MJ doesn't. Mr Dell is standing in front of her so she's not sure, but she catches a sort of blur in the front of the bus where Peter's still standing. She hears a loud 'bang' and then everyone is sitting back in their sits and Mr Harrington is complaining he didn't see any mountain goats, and Peter is still standing there in the aisle, with his glasses and his hair in an even messier mess that usual.

"You missed them," he says with a nod, and he sounds out of breath for some reason. Betty then points out that she likes his new look, and Ned agrees – of course he does – and that's when it strikes her.

He looks like Tony Stark.

Well, not exactly _like_ Tony Stark, but his glasses, they definitely are Tony Stark-y.

She goes back to reading, wondering what this all means. If she'd brought her Spider-Parker notebook, she would definitely have written that one down. There's never been any doubt that Parker was a big fan of Iron Man. MJ remembers all too well how happy he sounded when he got the Stark Internship back in Freshman. During their first year in junior before the Blip, he was also seen talking with him once. Wow, these days seem so far away now.

"Hey MJ?"

She looks up and finds Brad staring at her with a tentative smile that has her cringe on the inside for some reason. "'Sup?"

"Can I sit, for a minute?" He asks, and she just shrugs, so he does sit. "I need to show you something, I don't mean to upset you or anything, but I uh – I think you need to know the truth." She just stares at him and he lets out a small, somehow nervous laugh. "About Parker. The truth about Parker." he specifies with an earnest nod.

"What about him?" she sighs, weirdly annoyed. She glances up front and meets Peter's eyes before he hides behind the backrest of his seat, and she suppresses a grin from her face – what a doofus.

Brad takes out his phone and opens up the gallery app, swiping through the photos he took while in Venice apparently. But then his breath hitches and he swipes faster, clearly astonished. "Uh, this is so weird," he says with a nervous laugh, "It was right here on my phone I, I uh –"

"Yeah, weird," MJ says with a small frown. She glances towards Peter a second time, and meets his eyes for half a second before he ducks again like an idiot, and something tells her 'weird' has Parker's signature all over it, even if she doesn't know exactly how. Brad is very nervous now, shifting in his seat, still searching for the picture in his phone, and she can't help herself and asks casually: "Was that all?"

Brad meets her gaze and flushes, then excuses himself and goes back to his seat without another word. MJ goes back to her book, but her thoughts are all over the place. She catches Peter looking at her multiple times during the remainder of the trip, and she feels it growing inside her chest: the thought that maybe, just maybe, something will happen in Prague between them. She goes over the facts again and again, him staring at her a lot, his apparent jealousy when she talks to Brad, his nervousness when they talk to each other, and it's scary, and it's exciting, and her heart is pounding in her chest as she allows herself to consider what _could_ happen.

Some part of her though, the one that's been consistently disappointed in her parents' behavior since forever, still thinks it's dumb to even begin to hope. This is not going to happen. Why would _she_ be the lucky one to have the boy she's been crushing on for so long actually crush on her too? This doesn't happen in real life. This is just for stupid rom-coms and teen movies and whatnot.

But he's still glancing at her from time to time, she can feel it, and what else could it mean? He's switched seats, taking the one in front of Ned and Betty, propping himself on his knee to look above the backrest of his seat and talk to his friend every once in a while. And she doesn't listen to their conversation, because considering Betty's bored face it's probably just nerd stuff, but she can feel his gaze on her every now and then, and it sends shivers down her spine even if she pretends it's no big deal.

Eventually they make it to Prague, and the night is already falling. Turns out it's the Carnival of Lights during the entire week, a new festival instated after the Blip to celebrate the return of the Vanished and really just a pretext to have fun for an entire week at the beginning of summer. MJ's classmates are delighted to go – she's a little more skeptical but whatever – and for a little while they're all convinced that's what they're going to do this evening.

They all go their separate ways for an hour or so of free time. MJ spends it alone exploring a little around the hotel then resting in her room. When it's time to gather downstairs she finds everyone – except for Peter, and Brad who's still sulking about his missing picture – wearing glow sticks and super excited to, quoting Flash, "take part in the biggest party in the world".

That's when Mr Harrington announces that they're actually going to the Opera instead because the tour company gave them some tickets. And then they're all complaining, except for Ned which is weird, but Mr Harrington is adamant and tells them to go dress nicely and to meet back downstairs in twenty minutes. So that's what they do.

And for some reason, MJ feels more comfortable about that than the Carnival. It's a four-hour Opera, which is probably going to be excruciatingly long, but she keeps thinking that if she can sit next to Peter then maybe, _maybe_, a four-hour Czech musical won't be that bad. She puts on her flowery dress, lets her brown curls loose except for a couple of hair-clips to keep them out of her face. She grabs her jacket then finds her way back in the hallway of the hotel.

That's when she sees it.

His affection.

She sees it in his eyes as she walks down the stairs and their gazes meet. And it's quite _cliché_ really, but she couldn't care less at the moment. They look at each other for a couple of seconds then he looks down to his feet with a definite flush, and when she stops by his side while they wait for Mr Harrington, he doesn't say anything. He looks nice too, with his black jacket and white shirt. He's managed to comb back his hair, which is unusual. He reminds her of him ages ago during the Homecoming of their sophomore year. She hadn't seen him that much back then but she distinctively remembers how nice he looked that night too.

Not that he doesn't look nice all the time, or that it matters in any way really. She's getting confused. Her palms are sweating so she puts them in the pockets of her jacket, breathing deeply to keep her focus. But keep her focus on what? As they exit the hotel and walk among the people heading to the Carnival, Peter and her follow the group side by side, and there's only one thought circling in her head:

Is this _it_?

They get inside the opera house, and she stops to pretend she's looking at the gorgeous settings of the place – which, to be fair, really _are_ beautiful – but all she wants is to take the leap, finally. After _years_ of endless crush on that stupid boy, she thinks tonight is the night. Brad smiles at her and tells her he's keeping her a seat, and she gives him a closed-lip smile. She really has to do something about this before he gets his hopes too high.

She doesn't linger on the thought at all. Peter stops next to her, and he's looking at her so she smiles, heart pounding in her chest. Dear God she hopes he can't hear it, because it's pretty much all _she_ can hear right now.

"You look really pretty," he tells her quietly, and he's clearly nervous and it's just stupidly endearing.

"Therefore I have value?" she quips back, raising an eyebrow at him.

And there it is, his special dear-caught-in-the-headlights Parker look, and really he's such a cute dork she can't even. "No, no that's not what I meant at all. I was just –"

"I'm messing with you," she cuts him with a smile and he lets out a nervous chuckle at that. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"You look pretty too," she tells him a little awkwardly, but somehow he doesn't seem to think it's weird because he thanks her too.

"Oh my Gosh, Opera glasses!" Betty says behind them, and MJ figures it could be her opening.

She can do this. From what she's observed he seems to want it too, so what's so scary about asking him one little question? One teeny tiny question, just a few words, she can do this, come on.

"Do you wanna go in on a pair?" she asks him, grasping her jacket a little tighter because she feels like she has to hold onto something as she's never felt so stressed out before in her entire life. It's even worse than that time he asked her if they were friends.

"You mean sit next to each other?" he says, a small smile starting to light up his face, and her heart effectively jumps in her chest at this sight.

"Yeah." she nods with yet another shy smile.

But then his face stills and he says curtly, "No."

MJ frowns, lost at his sudden change of demeanor, and looks down in surprise. "Okay, no… no you don't want to sit next to me or, no you just don't want the glasses?"

He frowns too, reaching to smooth the hair above his right ear with shaky fingers, visibly nervous. "I didn't mean that I– uh, uh if you go ahead I'll go grab us a pair."

What was that, she has no idea, but she doesn't dwell on it because he actually said _yes_. He wants to sit next to her. This is just great. Awesome, not at all terrifying or nerve-wracking or anything. Just two people casually agreeing to sit next to each other during a four-hour long Opera. Two friends. Are they still friends? She's getting sidetracked, she really needs to just get a _freaking_ grip.

"I'll save you a seat, next to me," MJ trails off, her throat so dry she's not sure her words make any sense, and he nods.

"Awesome."

"There's a lot of seats so I'll be up there…" She nods too, then smiles, then lets out a nervous chuckle that he mirrors, and god this is so scary, and yet so exciting she can't help the slight skip in her steps as she walks to her seat. Brad waves to her, and nods to the seat next to him and she frowns. Right, there's still him to deal with.

"I'm uh, I'm actually saving a seat for Peter," she tells him nicely but with a sharp smile, thinking _that_ should do it, "but thanks, Brad."

He stares at her, clearly taken aback, but she doesn't acknowledge it. She will not find herself in a stupid love-triangle of some sort, these are just ridiculous. She sits down, leaving a spot between Brad and her for Peter, debating over where to put her jacket for half a second. She can't help being annoyed at herself for the way her hands seem to shake the slightest, and she knows it's just nerve and it's probably fine, but she still finds it stupid. She's a strong, independent woman, she doesn't need to feel _this_ nervous because a stupid boy is about to sit next to her.

He agreed to it. He said yes, he seemed actually happy about it.

Wow this is just so dumb.

"MJ?"

She looks up, realizing that Betty sat next to her while she was over-analyzing stuff, and Ned is looking at her, handing her something. She grabs it without really registering what it is, until Ned speaks again: "Sorry but Peter told me to tell you that he's sick, he left to go back to the hotel."

"What…?" She looks down to the opera glasses in her hand, and she doesn't understand. She doesn't get it. He said yes, and then he bails on her three minutes later? Peter Parker, sick? He hasn't even been sick since… since… since forever! There _has_ to be another reason than that. As she's trying to figure out exactly what just happened, the curtains of the stage open and music starts playing. She can't keep her eyes off of the Opera glasses Ned gave her. She feels more than she sees Brad sitting next to her, and she takes a large gulp of air to still the rambling thoughts in her head.

She turns to look back at the entrance of the Opera house, and takes a decision.

Peter is never sick. Peter vanishes all the time. This _has_ to do with Spider-Man. Otherwise it means that he's a freaking liar and he had her completely fooled into thinking he actually liked her. She can't bear actually considering this, because she knows him. At least she thinks she does. The Peter Parker she knows and likes would never pretend to like someone and hurt them.

Wouldn't he?

She's got to make sure of it.

So she stands up quietly, puts the glasses on her seat, and leaves the Opera house without a glance back.

She makes it to Old Town Square, wandering among people enjoying the Carnival, looking up the facade of buildings, opening her eyes to anything that looked remotely like the stupid wall crawler. Maybe she's wrong, maybe Peter really is sick, or maybe he just wanted to enjoy the Carnival alone. Without Ned? Weird, but considering his morphing with Betty maybe not that weird. Without her? Nope, not going down that road again.

She's hurt, she can't deny it, but she shushes away the pesky feeling because it clearly won't get her anywhere. Right now, all she needs to do is find him. Whether he's out Spider-Maning or Peter-Parkering.

There's a fountain in the middle of the square. She approaches it, intending to go up the small steps to try and get a better view of the surroundings. Fireworks are blasting in the sky, people are chattering and laughing, little kids are enjoying the Carousel with delighted shrieks, everyone's having a good time.

Then it all stops. Unlike the water monster's attack where she felt hyper-aware of everything, this one feels more like an out-of-body experience. MJ watches with a distant horror feeling as the steps of the fountain crack and magma pours out of it, creeping up the metal statue. She doesn't wait for the full formation of what she expects to be a fire monster of some sorts – what has her life become? – and runs away.

She's hearing the screams and cries for help, she's feeling the fear of people running alongside her, but it feels so distant and hazy she can't fully register any of it. There is one thing in her mind, and only one thing. She hides on the side of a building and stays there, looking out for him. Because somehow she's convinced he _is_ coming, and she doesn't feel as scared as she probably should.

Something is happening, but she can't see what exactly without stepping into the danger zone, so she waits. But it is clear, _someone_ is fighting off the lava monster. She wonders if it's bubble-head man aka Mysterio. The monster is close now, she can see its back from her hiding spot, and feels the burning heat emanating from it. And is it she or is it actually getting _big__g__er_? This is bad.

_Thank you, Captain Obvious._

She watches as the monster stomps over to the Ferris Wheel. It brings down its fiery fist to the ground – she's not sure but she thinks there is someone down there and she feels fear crippling her heart. Then Mysterio's magic forms a round shield and the monster angrily hits it again and again trying to break it. It eventually breaks and MJ watches as two figures dash out of the monster's grasp, Mysterio to the left, and _someone else_ to the right. And she can't risk trying to figure out who the second person is because he/she/it is out of sight from where she stands, but she knows, deep inside of her heart, she knows.

Then a couple of seconds later she sees him.

There's no doubt in her mind. She could recognize his bearing anywhere. He's not wearing his usual red and blue suit, but a dark one that is probably a poor attempt to hide his real identity as Spider-Man. But it's him. She's sure of it. She sees him jump and land on a street lamp, shoot a web and haul a rock with it, throwing it at the fire monster. The monster stumbles under the attack, then swings a hit at him and MJ watches as he barely dodges it, heart pounding in her chest.

If only she could _help_.

But what could she do against a freaking fire monster, she has no idea.

That's when the Ferris Wheel suddenly starts to wobble, and MJ hears the screaming of people still trapped in it. Spider-Man or Black-weirdo-guy or whatever shoots a web at it to try and prevent it from toppling over, but it hits something else. MJ watches as he pulls on his web and tears something off, sending it flying towards her. The thing crashes down next to her, and if there ever was the slightest doubt in her mind that this guy _is_ Spider-Man, it's now completely gone.

She's seen his webs before. The one laying down on the ground is just like these. It's stuck on some piece of electronic equipment that she's never seen before. She doesn't even hesitate. She grabs the thing and stuff it inside her pocket. When she looks up again, Mysterio is firing his green magic stuff at the lava monster, and she watches in horror as it stumbles closer and closer to where she's hiding.

Fear finally strikes its last blow and she runs away from the scene, scared for her life. Crossing her fingers that Peter will be alright. She trusts him though. She knows he'll be fine. He has to. Because they have some _serious_ talking to do when he comes back.

* * *

_Okayyyy so I thought this one would be my last chapter for this fic, but I wrote and wrote and wrote and then I realized I had reached 4,300 words and had barely covered a third of what I was planning to do so yeah, I suck at planning stuff LOL_

_Thanks a LOT for the wonderful reviews, apparently there are so problems to comment on this website, so I'm even more glad you guys took the time to still do it _

_sceptilezeno, the popo is here, Alex Quinn (your enthusiasm brought a big ass smile on my face LOL), Guest and bro thank you guys so much for your kind words, they mean a lot to me _


	9. Chapter 9

_Well hello there!_

_Alright, this chapter covers five minutes in the movie, and it took me approximately 8 hours and 5,356 words in total to get it done like I wanted to! I'm having so much fun this is actually insane._  
_This is it guys, THE chapter covering the one and only scene that inspired me to write this fiction._  
_Hope you like it :D_

* * *

67% sure

The next three hours are excruciating. MJ makes it back to the Opera house right as Mr Harrington, Mr Dell and the rest of her classmates get out of it to try and figure out what the hell happened. It's all over the news already, and everyone is getting calls and texts from their families to make sure they're alright.

Well, almost everyone. MJ's phone is as quiet as can be in her jacket's pocket.

Mr Harrington is hysterical when he realizes he's missing three students. Peter, Ned and Betty are nowhere to be seen. Mr Dell offers no help since he's rambling like a mad man about witches. They wait for a little while as the adults panic out of their mind, then MJ points out that they should probably head back to the hotel and wait there instead of in the middle of the street.

She's used to these types of situations. Being the adult when the real ones are completely failing at it. It takes a little practice, but she's got it now. It's almost easy. She's not sure if it's very healthy for her, but whatever.

So that's what they do. They go back to their hotel, and text Peter, Ned and Betty that that's where they are. It's already past midnight, and everyone is pretty much exhausted. MJ is about to close the door of her room when Ned and Betty reappear, and Mr Harrington hugs them and cries about how he couldn't bear to lose another student on a field trip. MJ admits it, he is pretty unlucky as far as freaking monsters showing up everywhere they go, but he's also not a very competent supervisor. She keeps it to herself though. Mr Harrington is a bit dull, but he's still nice.

He's completely freaked out still because Peter is missing. He's been making calls to book flights so that they can go home in the morning. Parents are calling left and right still, to make sure their offsprings are okay. MJ still hasn't heard from either her mom or her dad, but it doesn't surprise her at all.

It's sad, but not surprising.

She slowly closes the door to her room and sits down on her bed, head buzzing with everything that happened. Four hours ago she was here, debating whether she should take the leap and ask Parker out – or you know, ask him if he would like to sit next to her and spend time with her and whatever. And now…

Now she's back here, exhausted, debating whether or not she should confront him with her newfound knowledge.

Because he _is_ Spider-Man.

He _has_ to be.

She has proof now. It's sitting in her backpack. She's barely even dared to touch it, in fear of the web disappearing or something. She can't afford that, because then what would she do if she confronts him and he denies it? He's probably going to deny it anyway. He doesn't seem very keen on sharing his big secret. She kind of understands that, even though she wishes she didn't because it would be so easy then to be mad at him.

She could probably be. He's lied to her for years, well, lying by omission, but still. On the other hand, she hasn't been his friend for that long. And even now they're not very close. Ned probably knows, it would make sense. She's pretty sure he's the only one from school. Does May know? It would make sense too, since Spidey came a couple of time to those Blip charity reunions in Brooklyn. They must have orchestrated the whole thing together. Tony Stark knew as well, she's sure of that much. She wonders how he figured it out.

No, she's not mad at Peter Parker. In any case, even if she _was_ mad at him, she would definitely not be able to hold it against him as soon as she'd see his stupid cute face and meet his brown puppy eyes. She closes her own eyes and falls down on the bed with yawn. This is such a mess.

"_Oh! Peter, you're not dead!_"

MJ sits straight back up, letting out a shaky sigh she didn't know she'd been holding back all this time. Mr Harrington's voice trails off, but she's sure of what she heard. He's back. Peter's back. She knew he would come back eventually, she trusted him to, but still, hearing Harrington's voice claiming it is such a relief she feels weirdly lightheaded all of a sudden.

This is it.

She has to do this, she knows she has to, but somehow now that he's back, she's terrified. Her hands are shaking and she can barely breathe, and goddammit she's been waiting for this moment for _so long_. Thinking back, she knew it coming here. She knew this trip would shed light on the whole Spider-Man thing. She didn't expect it to happen like _that_, but some part of her knew it from the beginning.

She hears the voice of Mr Dell out there, but doesn't quite make out his words. She takes a deep breath and stands up from her bed, slowly walking towards the door. She takes another shaky breath, and hears Flash's voice in the room next to hers saying something about keeping it down because he's live-streaming.

_You got this. _

She opens the door wide, and there he is. With his back to her, his white shirt, his backpack on one shoulder, looking at Ned who's apparently heading towards Betty's room. Should _she_ ask him to come to _her_ room? Peter, not Ned of course. Uh. No, absolutely not. Not a good idea, unless she wants to lose half her brain capacity because of the _situation_ and have him realize she's actually pretty dumb. Nope. Not an option. She leans on the door frame to keep herself from stumbling or doing stupid things. "Hey."

He turns to face her, his brown eyes meeting hers, and she feels a jolt in her chest. "Hey." He smiles, a small, shy thing that still reaches his eyes and warms her heart.

_Ew_, she's so mad at herself right now.

"Where were you?"

"Um, I got lost." he says, without really looking at her. _Such_ a bad liar. To think this guy is probably Spider-Man. How he managed to keep it a secret for so long, she has no idea.

"We were worried about you," she admits, which isn't a lie at all. He seems to appreciate it, and it sends weird shivers up and down her spine. "Good thing you're back," she adds with a closed lips smile that she immediately deems stupid, but he doesn't seem to notice.

"Yeah."

"So much for Paris, right?" she says with a shrug involving way too much arms than initially intended, and really she has no idea what the hell she's doing.

"Would have been fun," he agrees, and he seems tensed too, his hands are clutched on the strap of his backpack, his face is very still, he hasn't blinked in _forever_, and oh what she would give to know what's going on inside his head at that very moment.

"Yeah," she says, moving backwards inside her room without really thinking about it. "Night," she shrugs again, and scolds herself internally. This is a _disaster_.

"Night."

She turns her back to him and walks into her room, then turns and meets his eyes one last time before closing the door. She's pretty sure he's started to say something else but the door is now closed and she thinks she's going completely nuts.

What the hell was _that_? She was supposed to confront him, or _at_ _least_ talk to him like a freaking normal human being and figure out a way to get him to tell her the truth. To be fair though, she hadn't really thought about how she was going to proceed, which she really _should_ have because now she's standing there like an idiot with her back to the door, and she is not any closer to the freaking truth. She really needs to get those nerves under control.

"Get your shit together, Jones." she scolds herself under her breath.

She takes a deep inspiration then turns and opens the door again, hoping she can catch up to him before he disappears again like he always does.

She doesn't have to though. She opens the door, and there he is, with his fist in the air like he was about to knock, and she almost jumps because clearly she did not expect that. "Oh! Hey…" Why does she feel like when she's talking to that idiot her vocabulary becomes so much more limited than usual? Maybe his dorkishness is contagious.

Or maybe, just maybe, she's a lost cause and her soft spot for Peter Parker is actually the size of the freaking moon. She's doomed, isn't she?

"Uh, look um," he hesitates, his hand back to clenching the strap of his backpack, "I'm not ready for this trip to be over yet, and I kind of want to do something fun that's not on the itinerary or planned or with Mr Harrington…"

"Yes." She doesn't even think about it. She's on autopilot. It's nice.

His brown eyes are so wide, she's pretty sure they're accountable for at least 50% of her stupid crush for this idiot. "Yes like you want to go?" he asks with slightly raised eyebrows, like he's not really sure he's getting this right.

"Yes," MJ repeats with a nod and a small smile, and his face lights up like he can't quite believe she's actually saying yes, and god, he's such a cute dork she has no idea how it's humanly possible.

"Awesome, I'll see you outside in 10 minutes?"

"Meet me outside in 5 minutes," she retorts, just for the heck of it. Take back some control, _yes_. Kind of an illusion of control but whatever. She can do this.

He nods and lets out a very quiet nervous chuckle. "Five is good."

They say bye to each other and MJ closes her door again, heart pounding in her chest. She's going out alone with Peter Parker at 2:30 in the morning in a European city they don't know, and all she can think is how the hell she's made it to this very moment in her life. And what's going to happen next. What she wants to happen next. What Peter wants to happen next.

She has to stay focused though. Because making out is _not_ an option, not until _after_ she's made him admit that he is Spider-Man. That's the objective. The number one mission. Wow. She can't believe she's actually considering the more or less real possibility to actually _make out_ with Peter freaking Parker. How can she be so nervous about something? Is it just in her head or is this actually happening for real?

No, no. No no no.

That's not the point.

The point is, _Spider-Man_.

That's when it hits her.

Maybe the point _is_ actually Spider-Man.

Maybe that's what he wants to do. Maybe he wants to tell her the truth.

She shivers at the idea and looks down at her phone. T minus two minutes before explosion. Or you know, two minutes before she has to go meet Parker downstairs. "Focus," she enjoins herself out loud. All she needs to do is think rationally. Breathe and concentrate and not get sidetracked. She can do this. What does she need? Jacket, backpack with the evidence, key to her room. Phone? Not important. She doesn't have time to change. It's alright. He did tell her earlier that he thought she looked pretty. Wait, _no_, not important.

She puts her jacket and backpack on, heads out of her room towards the elevator. She presses the button, the elevator dings and then here it is, and it's so fast and she's so nervous she starts playing with the straps of her bag, and really _how do people do this_?

He's already waiting for her in the hallway. He's changed into his usual hoodie and some NASA t-shirt, and when he spots her he leans off the wall he was leaning on and walks to her with a shy grin that has her heart do multiple back flips in her chest. He asks her where she wants to go, and she says she doesn't care because it's true, and they head out of the building side by side. They walk in silence for a little while, and every now and then their hands brush against one another, and it feels like it's sending electric impulses through her entire body every time it happens.

And she's freaking out so much about it, she thinks she's lost the ability to speak altogether.

"I'm glad we're doing this."

They've somehow made it to Charles Bridge, which means they've been walking for at least 20 minutes in absolute silence, her practical brain informs her. She's been playing with her hands for the last five minutes, because those little sparks of electricity whenever their hands brushed against each other were _not_ doing any good to her mental health whatsoever. "Yeah, me-me too." she lets out, and she thinks her voice doesn't sound at all like hers but whatever.

"To see the city a little bit…"

Say something. Anything. "You know they used to execute people on this bridge?" Oops, maybe not that. Peter gives her his stunned 'oh' as he always does whenever she rambles about something he probably finds extremely creepy. "They would like, put them in baskets and they would drown…" Her voice trails off, and she mentally slaps herself. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Peter says with a chuckle. And then their hands are brushing against each other again, and she feels like she's losing her mind. How she's supposed to get anything done, she has no idea. What was the plan anyway? What was she even trying to figure out? She tries to think, but then Peter is talking, and her mind goes completely blank. "Uh, there's this thing that I've been wanting to talk to you about for a while."

He's slowed down and stopped, so MJ takes another couple of steps then turns to face him. Maybe keeping some distance between them might help her stupid brain to focus on important things, like the meaning of the words that just came out of his mouth. Is this it? Is he about to tell her the truth? "Yeah?"

"It's our last night in Europe and I had this plan that I wanted to tell you –" His voice trails off and he closes his eyes for a second, to compose himself it seems. He then shakes his head and keeps going: "I'm just, I'm just gonna tell you."

MJ watches as he takes something out of his pocket, and in the half second he takes to talk again, she makes a thousand assumptions on what that could actually be. Is it the spider that bit him? _Ew_ she hopes not. Or his web shooters? Or is his suit made of like, insane technology that shrinks it to the size of a box of mints? That would be cool. And convenient. Is that even possible though? Maybe he wants to show her proof. Make sure she believes him. Oh, how she loves/hates how much her heart is pounding in her chest right now.

"MJ, I –" he starts quietly.

"Am Spider-Man," she finishes for him, and he looks up in surprise.

"What?"

"That's what you were gonna say," she tells him with confidence, "that you're Spider-Man."

"No…" he shakes his head in disbelief. "I'm not Spider-Man."

Her heart droops in her chest with disappointment. There it is. Denial. She'd kind of hoped he would cut straight to the chase, but apparently not. Doesn't matter, she's not going to let him off easy. She has proof, she's pretty sure she's right, she's not letting him lie to her anymore. That's it, Parker. Your little secret is no longer one. That's _it_. "I mean I've been watching you for like a while now, it's kind of obvious." She takes the easy approach, her voice light and casual, because she wants it so much, for him to tell her the truth. She deserves it, right?

But he keeps lying. He asks her what makes her think that, and there's so many options really, but she chooses the safest one, which is what happened in Washington. He retorts that he was sick, but he's _such_ a bad liar it's insane.

"You know Susan Yang thinks that you're a male escort?" she points out, starting to feel more and more annoyed at his poor attempts to deny everything. Why is he doing this? Does he think she's stupid or something?

"What?!" Peter exclaims, clearly offended, and here, that's what it looks like when he denies something that is actually not true. Idiot. "No of course I'm not a male escort!"

"Well then you're Spider-Man." MJ deadpans with a dismissive shrug, which seems to annoy him.

"No I'm not, Spider-Man, at all." he scoffs.

Alright, to hell with the easy approach then. "What about tonight?" she retorts, raising her eyebrows at him, "You snuck off and you fought that thing, I saw you."

"You can't have seen me because I'm not Spider-Man!" he repeats for the thousandth time it seems. "And also, on the news, it was the Night Monkey."

"The Night Monkey?"

"That's what it said on the news." he shakes his head like an idiot. "And the news… never lies."

That's it then. He must be really dumb to think she's ever going to accept that kind of _nonsense_. "Night Monkey, okay." she says again, taking off her backpack slowly. She can feel his nervous gaze on her. He asks her what she's doing but she ignores him. She opens the bag, takes out her piece of evidence and asks quietly, studying his face carefully: "Well do the Night Monkey and Spider-Man use the same webs?"

She watches as he obviously swallows, and she thinks for a second she's got him. But then he starts rambling, and somehow with every word it feels like he's stepping on her heart. "I mean, maybe, maybe he's the Spider Monkey, who knows." He looks down for a second, then looks back at her and he's frowning, and his voice sounds disappointed and hurt when he speaks again. "Were you only watching me because you thought I was Spider-Man?"

And he's lied to her, he's _still_ lying to her. It's infuriating really, she hates it, but it's also so _sad_. Why can't he trust her, she wants to yell at his face. Above everything else though, the dismay she hears in his voice, and the pain she sees on his face as he stares at her waiting for her answer, well it scares her. She can't do this. She's not brave enough, she thinks. So she lies. "Yeah…" She can't meet his eyes, his huge, brown puppy eyes that seem to expect so much. She stupidly feels like she's failing him, but that's unfair really, because isn't he failing her too, by lying, again and again, like it's nothing? Like it doesn't matter. Like _she_ doesn't matter. "Why else would I be watching you?"

He barely meets her eyes, and she watches helplessly as a sad, thin smile stretches his lips. "Doesn't matter. Just thought that maybe –"

He doesn't get to finish his sentence though, because the piece of metal she's still holding suddenly lights up and she drops it to the floor in surprise. Both MJ and Peter take a few steps back from the thing as a blue light flows out of it in some sort of cone, reminding MJ of those old projectors from some of their classes in Midtown. Then it appears above them: a giant cloud of dark smoke, that somehow looks like another one of those giant monsters that pop out everywhere they go since they set foot in Europe. The thing swipes an arm towards MJ, but it seems completely incorporeal and does nothing, passing right through her. It only lasts a second and then it's gone.

"The Hell was that?!"

"I don't know…" MJ turns on herself, looking up the sky, then back to the piece of tech on the ground. Her heart is beating hard and fast in her chest. Whatever it was, it came from that thing, she's sure of it. Peter seems to have reached the same conclusion because he very carefully picks it up, gesturing for MJ to stay back. "What is it, like some kind of projector or something?" she asks with a shaky voice, as Peter examines the thing with a deep frown.

"Yeah but it's… really advanced…"

"It… it looked so real." she stammers, and she hears Peter agree. Then it strikes her. It looked exactly like the two monsters they faced these last two days, except for the fact that it was just a projection, not a real thing. Which doesn't make any sense but… "Wait a minute, does that mean that…"

"The Elementals are fake?" Peter finishes for her, and she looks at him as he seems to ponder, eyes going wild, and she swears she can almost see the thought process he's going through right now on his face. They've reached the same conclusion, and it doesn't reassure MJ the slightest because what the hell does it mean? What's going on? How is any of this possible? Peter voices all the thoughts that are crashing through her mind: "That doesn't make any sense because we were there right? There was fire and destruction and…" He pauses for a second, and she sees the fear and incomprehension in his eyes. "Who would do something like that?"

The projector answers that question itself. MJ feels her heart drop in her chest when the monster appears again above them, then… "Mysterio?" she breathes out, stupefied. She doesn't have time to process what it can mean. Peter turns back to her as the projector turns off again, his eyes round with shock and something else she cannot really decipher. And when he speaks his next few words, it effectively wipes out her entire train of thoughts.

"I _am_ Spider-Man." He tells her, his posture very tensed. He hesitates a second, looking up then back at her before adding: "And I really messed up."

And she's been waiting for a _long_ time to hear him say these words. The first ones, obviously, not that part about him messing up. That part doesn't surprise her half as much as she thinks it should. She hadn't really thought about what she would _feel_ when he finally admits it, but she'd figured probably loads of glee and personal satisfaction and _'AH HA I KNEW IT'_ kind of thing. Definitely not the incomprehension and doubt and absolute confusion she's feeling right now.

"Wait, you're, you're being serious right now?" she stutters, and Peter nods, and he's not a liar right? But wait, yes he is, he's been lying to her this whole time… she can't for the life of her make any sense of his words because what the hell? Is he making fun of her or is he truly honest, finally? "You're not joking with me like you're a 100% serious right now 'cause it's not funny." she insists, and she kind of thinks she's about to burst in tears or something because of how little sense all of this makes right now, and yet how much it actually means at the same time.

"No, I'm not joking," Peter confirms, and there's something in his voice, something so real, something that prompts her to just give in to the shock and uncertainty she's feeling at that very moment. He's telling the truth. Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

_Spider-Man _is_ Peter Parker._

"'Cause I was only like, 67% sure!" She tells him, and she's pretty sure he's trying to tell her something but this is just insane. She can't fully put her mind around what this all means. She's still so scared it's all gonna go away for some reason. There's so much going on in her mind right now she just can't keep any of it to herself. _Question what you don't understand_. "So, so why are you here, why are you on this school trip why–"

"MJ look I know you have a lot of questions," Peter cuts her, almost shouting, and she snaps out of it instantly, "but look, we really have to get out of here, okay?"

Right. Mysterio's a fraud, he's using illusions to destroy stuff and pretend he's a super-hero. There's a bad guy to be dealt with there. She's teaming up with Spider-Man to do so. _What_.

"Okay, okay." she nods, and they both start running back towards the hotel. They're running, and she's feeling so freaking alive, and she should probably be scared out of her mind from what they just discovered, but that's not really how she feels right now. Because Peter Parker _is_ Spider-Man. "Can't believe I figured it out!" she lets out with a large grin, and she can hear Peter's low chuckle at that.

She can't wipe the smile out of her face, although she figures she definitely should. But this is an accomplishment. She's been watching him for years, pondering whether or not he really was Spider-Man, and now he's confirmed it, despite himself really but still, and it feels so freaking _good_. A little moment of self satisfaction is in order, she figures. Then back to the 'oh my god there's a crazy dude with an evil plan to kill tons of people and destroy tons of stuff' kinda thing.

If she'd been exhausted before, it's all gone now. Energy courses through her blood as she thinks about how she was right all along and what it all implies. Peter is Spider-Man. He really is. They're one and the same, they have been for years now, and wait, so has he really been to _space_? Is he an Avenger? So. Many. Questions. They really need to sit down and talk when all this is over. She slightly shivers at the thought. More time with Peter. Who's actually Spider-Man. She's been suspecting it for _years_, literally, and yet actually knowing it feels _so_ different.

It's insane. And scary, too.

Mysterio really has to be a particularly huge asshole to put so much people in danger like this. Nothing like the usual bike thief or bank robber the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man takes care of back home. To be fair though, he's been to space. He's probably fought Thanos. Was he actually a part of that battle of Earth thing nine months ago? No wonder the Blip's been so hard on him. And he's lost Tony Stark, too. She didn't have to know about Spider-Man to realize he cared a lot for that man. So many things make more sense now that she knows. He's been through so much, and he's just a _kid_.

How on Earth does he cope with all this?

Alright, smile effectively wiped off now.

"Peter, wait up!"

He slows down and glances back to throw her an apologetic look. "Sorry I'm –"

"It's alright," she stops him with a hand gesture, a little – _a lot_ – out of breath. MJ figures he could have probably sprinted the whole distance from Charles Bridge to their hotel without even breaking a sweat, but he's got the whole bitten by a radioactive spider thing going on, so really that's not fair. "I just, I don't have as much stamina as you I guess." she breathes out, leaning on a wall for a second.

"I know, I'm sorry," he says with a gentle smile that doesn't help her catch her breath_at all_. Idiot. "So I guess you're not some kind of secret super hero or mutant or something then?" he jokes, and she narrows her eyes at him.

"I ain't telling you none of _my_ secrets," she retorts, and he lets out a sharp laugh.

"But that's not fair, I told you mine," he falsely pouts and she hides her grin behind her hand, pretending to clear her throat.

"Yeah well, you were kinda forced too, actually." she reminds him, and she wonders if he can hear the tiny speck of disappointment in her voice.

"Kinda, yeah." he nods, looking at his feet. Maybe he did hear. "Anyway, we're almost there, I guess we can walk the rest of the way, if you want."

"Wow, so chivalrous of you."

"Yeah, don't get used to it."

She doesn't hide her smile this time, and they stare at each other for a couple of seconds before they resume walking. MJ's heart is still pounding in her chest, and of course she's not sure if it's because of their little race or something else entirely. Like how she's been crushing on freaking Spider-Man for years. This is so weird. They walk for a moment in silence, and then she asks quietly, without looking at him: "So, can you tell me exactly what's going on or…?"

He lets out a strained sigh, and she's pretty sure he would probably rather keep running instead of walking and talking right now, but he sticks with her nonetheless and shrugs. "Yeah I guess, I'm just…" he sounds frustrated and angry, and she's not entirely sure why. "I'm just so mad at myself right now. I messed up so bad, this is all my fault."

She waits a couple of seconds for him to keep going, but he doesn't seem really keen on it and she frowns. "Yeah, not to sound unpleasant or anything, but if you actually told me what the hell's going on instead of moping about how it's your fault, then maybe I could help you," she points out, a little more roughly than intended, and she feels him wince next to her.

"You're right, I'm sorry," he says with a nervous chuckle before she can feel guilty about it. He glances at her with a small, curious smile, and she stares back, betting on her poker face to hide how satisfied she feels right now.

"I know." she tells him sharply, and his smile widens just a smidge before he looks back to his feet and lets out another sigh. And then he tells her everything. How Tony Stark apparently left him a pair of glasses that controls _an army of drones_. How Peter didn't want anything to do with it because let's face it, he's a _teenager_, what is he supposed to do with those things? How Nick Fury pressured him to step up and be what Stark wanted him to be. How Peter made the assumption that Tony gave the glasses to him of all people so that he could chose someone to be the next Iron Man. How he gave them to Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio, because he really thought he was a good guy. How it turns out he'd lied to him, to everyone, this entire time. The rest is history, as they say.

And it sucks. The betrayal stings from Peter's words, MJ can feel it deep inside her, and for once in her life she's at a loss of words. This is so much worse than she initially thought. How are they supposed to deal with this? How is _Peter_, a sixteen year-old kid from Queens, supposed to deal with this alone?

She wishes she could tell him he's not alone, because it's true, she's here, she wants to help him, but in the midst of illusion tech and super-heroes and armies of drones and whatnot, she really feels like she's just another tiny ant that has no place in that kind of fight. She feels powerless, and small, and what she can do, she has no idea.

She's going to try though. She will _not_ let Peter face this all alone.

* * *

_As you might have seen, I've added a little scene after the one on the Charles Bridge. I felt like it made sense? I don't know what you guys think. I'm gonna have to change a couple of lines from the movie in the next chapter because of that, but I think it will be fine still :D_  
_I'm signing at my new job tomorrow and starting on Monday, so I don't know how much time I'm gonna take to write the next chapter. Please, be patient with me ;)_

_ Thanks for all the reviews and follows and favorites, you guys are awesome!_  
_Until next time!_


	10. Chapter 10

_Hello everyone!_

_I spent an INSANE amount of time working on this chapter, for no apparent reason really, except that FFH's timeline is a little bit wonky and it bothered me because I like it when things make sense, so yeah. I won't bother you guys with how long it normally takes to do Berlin-Broek Op Langedijk by train, and how I tried to make it fit until I decided SCREW THIS it's 2024 they've probably built a high speed train line between Berlin and Amsterdam because THAT MAKES SENSE._

_ANYHOO, hope you enjoy this new chapter, we're getting close to the end people!_

* * *

67% sure

It takes them 10 more minutes to get back to the hotel. The sky is slowly clearing up, buildings and things revealing themselves to their eyes – maybe just her eyes, Peter has mentioned something about enhanced senses or something so, yeah. The sun won't be up for another hour or so but it can already make its presence known. It's a comforting thought, to know that no matter what happens, the sun will still come up and follow its course, impervious to whatever tragedy humans are facing at the moment.

It's really not the kind of thoughts that usually cross her mind, but to be fair there is nothing 'usual_'_ about this situation _at all_.

The hotel lobby is empty. Peter's walking like he's got the devil after him, and now that she knows pretty much everything, MJ understands perfectly why. He goes straight to his room and MJ follows, a tiny bit shy at the idea of finding herself in _Peter Parker's hotel room_, but whatever. He's different, now that he's got everything off his chest. He's determined and focused, not his usual dorkish self or the sad scared bloke he was fifteen minutes ago, and MJ can't help but notice she likes that version of Peter she's discovering right now.

"I still can't believe I gave Beck those glasses I mean, how could I be that stupid," he rambles, heading straight to the curtains and shutting them off, while she closes the door quietly. "He's probably spying on me right now or sending a drone to come and kill me."

"And _I_ still can't believe you had access to killer drones," MJ points out nervously. She stands still in the middle of the room while Peter runs around restlessly, heading to Ned's laptop on the desk and typing something on it.

"Yeah well, I didn't really want them," he nods absentmindedly, "especially after I almost killed Brad."

That's new information. MJ's mind runs wild with it, frowning deeply. "_You almost killed Brad?_" she repeats, a little breathlessly because what the hell? He absolutely failed to mention that earlier.

But Peter has already moved on. He shuts down the laptop and grabs his phone on the bed, already onto his next task. "Look, I have to call Mr Fury and tell him that Beck's a fraud but… I think he tapped my phone."

"Okay so what are you gonna do?" she asks, because at that point she figures all she has to do is roll with him, because clearly he's more experienced in this than she's ever going to be. Peter looks up from the phone he'd been fiddling with for the last two seconds, and there's something almost overwhelming in witnessing him come up with a plan on the spot. She can see through his eyes his brain is turning at full speed. She shouldn't be surprised though, Peter Parker _is_ one of the smartest person she knows.

"Um, I need my suit," he tells her, reaching for his backpack and emptying it on the bed, "and I have to go to Berlin, to talk to Mr Fury in person." As he speaks, he starts taking off his hoodie, and his t-shirt, and then he's standing there with all his stupid abs and biceps and other muscles and whatnot, and she can feel her cheeks reddening as he looks up at her in shock, his hands already reaching to unbutton his pants. And she's pretty sure his hyperactive mind is suddenly going completely blank, because that's exactly what _her_ mind is doing, except for one traitorous little thought circling inside it: '_is Peter Parker actually undressing in front of me?_'

And then, _does he keep his underwear under the suit or is he going _commando_?_

A question for the sake of science, of course.

They look at each other for a couple of nervous seconds, then MJ slowly turns to face the other wall and let him change into his suit, clearing her throat in the process, cheeks very hot and, she's pretty sure, very red as well. And she can hear the ruffling of clothes as he _takes off his pants_, and what has her life become, she's in Peter Parker's _hotel room_, he's down to his freaking _underwear_, and wow who is she kidding she kind of wants to just sneak a tiny little peak… will he notice if she slowly moves her head to look? Probably, he _did_ mention enhanced senses earlier… But then what if he notices, what would he think, what would he _do_, what would _she_ do? She's suddenly completely overwhelmed by the endless possibilities. Or just by the compelling chance to actually see _him_ in his underwear. Or less… _What_? Oh, she's in trouble.

She lets out a shaky sigh, heart pounding in her chest, silently moving her head to look at him, biting her lower lip in expectancy… of what? But then there's a small sound to her left and she looks up, and there is Ned, standing in the doorway with his mouth agape in his 'chilling' burgundy pajamas, a thousand different emotions crossing his round face.

MJ hears a zipper and then Peter's voice, a little muffled so she figures he's already put his mask on. Man, that was fast. "Ah Ned, perfect!"

Ned's panicking eyes are going from Peter to MJ, from MJ to Peter. Yeah, he definitely knows, no doubt there. The idiot's probably already trying to come out with a plan to explain why Peter's dressed like that, which doesn't make any sense because why the hell would Peter change in front of MJ if she didn't know already? "The costume looks great!" he awkwardly says, hesitating, and MJ narrows her eyes at him. To be fair to Ned though, it is 4 in the morning, so benefit of the doubt because of exhaustion. "For the… costume party at the… princess' castle."

MJ peeks at Peter, and he's indeed already in his full Spider-Monkey suit. For some reason, her heart picks up at this sight, and she scolds herself internally.

"She knows," Peter tells Ned, pointing at MJ. "I told her."

"He didn't tell me," MJ corrects with a smirk, "I figured it out."

"Oh, that's cool," Ned says with a slow nod and a fake chuckle that tells her he doesn't find it cool at all. What is this? Is he _jealous_?

"Like a long time ago," she adds just to mess with him – even though it is technically true. She did have her suspicions about him for _ages_. And she was right. Wow, still feels good to think that. Ned narrows his eyes at her with another 'oh', but Peter doesn't let him say anything else and cuts straight to the chase.

"Look, Mysterio was a fraud." he tells him, and MJ watches as Ned turns to him in confusion.

"But-but he saved me and Betty's lives." he stammers with a frown.

"No, he's been faking the whole thing with illusion tech." MJ explains.

"Yeah, he's using these like holograms projectors." Peter adds.

"Wow, that's… crazy."

They both nod, and then MJ is meeting Peter's gaze, and with the eyes of his mask up like this he kind of looks like an idiot, but her heart still picks up because they're staring at each other and _sharing_ something in this stare, and it's electrifying and thrilling and scary too, because the world is kind of threatened right now but whatever. She curses herself, again. She needs to focus.

"So you guys were like, working the case together or what?" Ned asks, and she can hear it, his disappointment and unhappiness. She takes her eyes off Peter and turns to look at Ned, plastering an apathetic expression on her face.

"It's been mostly me." she tells him.

Peter Parker doesn't have time for this though, apparently. "Look Ned I need you to call May and get her to call Mr Harrington and say that she wanted me to stay with family in Berlin until this all blows over."

"Got it. Easy." his friend nods immediately, and MJ raises an eyebrow at this.

"Wow, you guys lie with such ease." she comments, and Ned smirks at what he might think is a compliment. It's not, not really. Once again though, Peter's already onto his next task, which is apparently to leave for Berlin. He walks to the window and opens the curtains and the window wide, getting ready to jump out, and MJ's heart drops in her chest. "Uh w-w-wait, the projector!" she stammers, grabbing the piece of tech and turning to Peter. "You're gonna need this," she adds, and tosses it to him. He catches it easily, meeting her eyes, then Ned's behind her.

"Don't tell anyone about this okay? Anyone who knows is in danger." he tells them seriously. He puts his, what are they, goggles? back on, then jumps out the window, and just like that, he's gone. Completely, utterly gone, and all MJ feels like she can do now is hope he stays safe. And she trusts him, and she knows he _will_ be safe because she's not done with him yet, but still, it kind of sucks.

She lets out a small, exhausted sigh, wondering if this part will get easier one day or not. Hopefully she'll figure this out, if Peter still wants her around after all this is over. What do Ned and him call themselves, the Spider-Team?

"So, you know too." Ned states, and she turns to him, surprised to only just remember his presence. "It's cool, um, I mean I've known first and I've known longer but it's not a competition."

Yeap, dude's jealous alright. She smirks at him, and some part of her just wants to reassure him that she has no intention of replacing him, because Ned is sweet, and his friendship with Peter is definitely not the kind of relationship she was looking for with Peter – wow, that's some straightforward thinking there, _dude_ – but then the other side of her just wants to mess with him just for the heck of it. Because deep down she kind of thinks that if Peter had to chose between Ned and her, he'd probably chose Ned. And it's fine, completely fine, she gets it, they're not that close anyway, and also she lied to him and he probably thinks she hates him or at least doesn't like him like _that_, but yeah. Wait, now who's being jealous?

She just really needs to sleep, she thinks. She sighs again, eyeing Peter's bed and debating whether or not it'd be weird if she took a nap in it. Probably creepy, yeah. She meets Ned's gaze. "Alright, now what?" she asks, because clearly that's the question. What are they supposed to do now that he's gone? Are they supposed to wait like two idiots doing nothing while their friend is off saving the world? If so, this _definitely_ sucks.

Ned throws her an exultant look, apparently passed his initial resentment/jealousy phase and happy to actually be the one on the driver's seat. "Well I'm gonna call May and tell her the plan."

"Okay, don't tell her about Mysterio though."

"Yeah, you're right. In the meantime um, what do you think we should do with Peter's stuff?"

MJ looks around the mess of Ned and Peter's room – seriously, they've been here for less than 12 hours how can it be so messy? _Boys_. Wow, she really needs some sleep if she's starting to have that kind of sexist, narrow-minded thoughts. "Go call May, I'll figure something out," she tells Ned, and he nods and exits the room – by the door unlike _some_ people.

She sits at the foot of the bed, letting out yet another sigh. This is insane. She still can't fully wrap her mind around all that happened tonight. The Opera, the fire monster, Peter on the bridge, the _revelation_, no, not so much a revelation as him finally admitting what she'd been suspecting for so long. The words feel like an ungraspable concept, and yet she _knows_ now. They're true, they're _real_.

_I am Spider-Man_.

She shakes her head, shiver running down her spine, attempting to draw herself back to reality. He's off to Berlin, hopefully he'll be back soon, and then what? No, asking herself that won't help. She needs to focus on the _now_. She gazes around the room, the laptop on the desk, the discarded backpack and clothes on the floor. No underwear in sight, which means he probably _doesn't_ go commando in his suit. She doesn't know what to do with that kind of information.

"Focus." she tells herself for the hundredth time tonight. Morning. It's getting clearer and clearer outside, the sun is about to rise. Peter left the window open, she walks up to it and looks outside. Her brain feels fuzzy and confused with sleep deprivation and an incessant train of thoughts swarming inside it. She shakes her head again, turns back inside to Peter's suitcase, grabs an armful of his clothes and stashes them inside her backpack before sitting back on the bed again. They won't be able to take his suitcase with them because it would probably raise suspicions since he's supposed to be in Berlin with his family – not that her classmates or teachers are that observant, because if they _were_ they would have figured out that Peter is Spider-Man already. Because it's easy, to make the connection. But maybe none of them care enough about him to realize how obvious it is.

It's dumb. People are dumb. They are so self-absorbed they can't even notice the awesomeness of others, even when it's actually right under their noses. Did she just call Peter awesome?

"MJ?"

She jumps, effectively startled, and looks around to try and make out her surroundings. She fell asleep. Her eyes feel puffy and dried out, and she blinks a couple of times, heart pounding in her chest. She lets go of the remaining images of some dream she was just having, something about Peter swimming in a round aquarium filled with green smoke and screaming words she was trying to but couldn't understand. She's feeling useless and scared, and although the dream definitely has something to do with those pesky feelings, she knows she will probably feel like that until she knows for sure Peter is safe.

"Ah, good, you're awake." It's Mr Harrington. He's looking at her with tired, unfocused eyes. Luckily for her he doesn't ask why she's sleeping in Peter and Ned's room. She's still so exhausted she thinks she would not have been able to figure out a good explanation for that. "We're leaving in twenty minutes, please get ready."

"'K."

He exits the room and she slumps back against the pillows with a yawn, rubbing her eyes for a solid minute to try and infuse life back into them. She has no idea how long she slept for, but it must not have been that long because she feels drained and weary still. She thinks about Peter, about last night, about what he's doing right now, and for a second she thinks she's about to cry with how anxious she is about all this.

"Hey, MJ."

She jumps again and glares at the second person who startled her today. "_Jesus_, Leeds," she complains, hiding her face in one of the very comfortable pillows.

"Sorry," Ned chuckles, "here, I got you some tea."

She looks up and grabs the disposable cup he's handing her with an irritated '_hmpf_'. She takes a warm sip, letting out an unconscious sigh of contentment because of it. She can feel Ned's satisfied gaze on her and she ignores him totally, yawning again and stretching her back. "I put some of Peter's clothes in my backpack," she tells him after a while, and she doesn't really know why she does, but somehow it feels nice.

"Yeah, I saw. I put some in my suitcase as well. I couldn't take much though, you know with the weight limit on planes and everything."

"What time is it?"

"Half past eight. We're leaving for the airport soon, we're stopping at Amsterdam and then all the way back home."

"What about Peter?"

"Don't worry about him, he'll get someone to pick him up in Berlin when he's done telling Fury everything."

"Right, as if that's all he's gonna do there," she mumbles with a scoff.

Ned lets out a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, not really his style uh?"

"Nope. He didn't… take his phone with him right?"

"Nope, left it here."

_Note to self: from now on, always carry around a stash of burner phones. _"Well this sucks." MJ says, emphasizing the sentiment with a heartfelt shrug. The tea inside her cup splashes around and she steadies her hand, taking another sip to hide how truly bummed she feels.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Ned sighs, and she stares at him for a moment before letting the words escape her mouth:

"Do you like… get used to it?" Her voice is very quiet, almost shy, and she scolds herself for it, especially as Ned smiles sadly at her.

"Not as far as I know," he admits, and she hides behind her cup of tea again, letting the hot liquid burn her tongue.

"Dammit," she mutters, and she's not sure whether it's because she burnt herself or because Ned confirmed what she'd been afraid of. She clears her throat and adds blankly: "If I'd known I'd never have figured it all out."

Ned raises an inquisitive eyebrow at her. "Really?"

Yeah, there's no fooling him, or herself for that matter. "No."

"How _did_ you figure it out anyway?" he asks curiously.

"Meh, I'm just very observant," she shrugs, but he's clearly not having it.

He doesn't pry though. She's lucky. "Riiiiiiiiiight," he says with narrowing eyes, and she just stares at him with her most neutral expression. But she can feel it, her cheeks and neck slowly reddening, and her heart beating a little too fast, so she stands up from the bed with a fake yawn.

"Anyway, I should go pack. Sorry I stole your bed for a few hours."

"That's alright," Ned smiles, standing up as well. "You looked really tired, I didn't want to wake you up."

"Yeah well I uh, um, thanks… _nerd_," she says, cursing herself for her hesitation. What's up with _that_? "I'll see you downstairs." she adds uselessly. She grabs her backpack filled with Peter's clothes and walks towards the door without a glance back.

"Yeah, see ya," Ned says quietly, and for a second she thinks she's escaped, but then as she reaches for the door, he speaks again and she stills. "And Michelle? Don't worry too much about Peter okay? He'll be fine, he always is." He lets out a small chuckle, then adds: "I mean, dude's been to space so…"

She nods and scoffs at the same time, still facing the door, and she can feel Ned's eyes burning a hole in her back. She waits for a second and then opens it and leaves the room, heart pounding in her chest. She feels like a coward, but she can't do this. If she had said anything else, she's pretty sure he would have realized how much she cares for his stupid friend. And clearly, she's not ready. Really, really not.

As she makes her way to her room and packs the rest of her stuff, it feels like her lie is tearing her apart. She hates liars, she's always felt surrounded by liars her entire life and she's made it a priority to be one of the few that only tells the truth. Even if sometimes it means hurting people.

And yet, yesterday she lied. And not to anyone, she lied to the very person she least wants to lie to. She looked right into his eyes and she lied to him. Her own eyes are now burning, and a hard lump is forming in her throat. She feels guilty and sad, and scared. _So_ scared. She needs to set things right, she absolutely does, and yet she has no idea when, even worse, _if_ she's gonna be able to do it. What if she never sees him ever again? Ned told her not to worry, but the _what ifs_ are so present in her mind it's definitely hard not to.

Luckily she doesn't get that much time to think. Mr Dell knocks on her door, saying they're off in five minutes, and she straightens up, grabs her stuff and plasters a bored expression on her face before meeting everyone downstairs. Then they head to the airport, pass security, board their flight to Amsterdam. She sits next to Tyler and Sebastian, and listen to them argue the whole one and a half hour flight about who would win in a fight, Thor or Mysterio. Now that she knows what she knows, there's no contest here, but she keeps her mouth shut and pretends to sleep. Next to her, on the other side of the aisle, Brad is still sulking on his phone.

They make it to Amsterdam and as they disembark, Mr Harrington gets a call from the mysterious 'Tour Company' – Ned told her they went to Prague because Nick Fury wanted Peter there. When he gets off the phone, he tells them wearily that they're not going home just yet. "Tour company upgraded us again apparently," he clearly sighs, and Ned and MJ exchange a suspicious look at that. "They've booked us Eurostar tickets to London, and a city bus tour, before we leave tonight."

"This is weird," MJ mutters to Ned, and he nods slowly.

"Yeah, a little, but don't worry I'm sure we'll be fine."

She doesn't share his optimism. At all. _Dammit Parker where the hell are you?_

They take a tram to Amsterdam Central Station, and grab a bite there. As she munches on her sad turkey sandwich, she contemplates the idea of '_accidentally_' spilling her entire bottle of water on Flash's head because he is still live-streaming the whole thing and it's the _worse_. But that would require getting up, so she decides against it. She's irritable and tensed, and _so_ exhausted her brain is painfully pounding in her head. She just wants a good night sleep and the reassurance that Peter is fine. He's been gone for six hours now, and she hates that he hasn't been in touch.

But Mysterio is probably keeping him busy so that makes sense. Can't Peter just kick his ass and be done with it already? She hates this, she hates being left in the dark and not being able to help, she hates not knowing if he's okay and what's going to happen next. She scrolls through her phone to see if something out of the ordinary happened in Berlin, but there's nothing except an article about a few people who spotted the Night Monkey outside Berlin Central Station this morning.

They get inside the Eurostar at 1:30pm, and MJ takes a heaven-sent nap for the entire 2-hour trip. When they reach London, she finally feels like a human being again, which is a definite step up. Everyone else seem worn out still, Mr Harrington the most, but he still tries to act like the responsible teacher – Mr Dell abandoned that task a long time ago.

"Okay guys, the company set up a city tour, and then we'll grab a bite and head to the airport," he reminds them as they walk out the train station.

That's when Brad starts acting weird, and they all stop to listen. "Is no one else gonna acknowledge how crazy this is?"

"Oh yeah I get it," Mr Dell agrees, "there's been nothing scientific about this science tour at all."

"No, no I'm talking about Peter!" Brad exclaims, and MJ raises an eyebrow, surprised. "Has no one else here noticed how shady he is? Because I took a picture of him in the back room of a rest stop with some woman in his underwear, and he's always sneaking away, like back at the Opera, uh? And now what he's suddenly off the trip? With his family in Berlin? Is no one else here interested in the truth?"

Ned opens his mouth to say something, but MJ shushes him with a hand gesture. She's sick of lies. She's handling that one. "_The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world_" she quotes, and Brad meets her gaze with thankful eyes.

"George Orwell," he says, and she has to give it to him, the guy knows his quotes alright. "Thank you, MJ."

Still kind of a douche though. "Yeah, well since Peter's not really here to tell his truth, what about you, _Brad_? Why do you think it's cool to take picture of people in the bathroom?"

"Yeah dude, what's that about?" Flash adds pointedly.

Brad swallows nervously. "No, no it wasn't like that, it was – I was trying to take a –"

"Let's just put all this craziness behind us," Mr Harrington cuts him with a slow nod, "and have a nice, peaceful afternoon. '_Sounds great Mr Harrington_,' said the class. Okay." MJ meets Brad's eyes and smirks at him, and the poor dude looks like she just kicked him the shin or something. She doesn't feel bad. He'll get over it.

A red double-Decker bus is waiting for them outside. They get in and all sit down on the top deck. Her classmates are excited to actually get to see London for a little while, but MJ can't help herself, she really has a bad feeling about this, even though she can't really describe why. Ned is sitting next to Betty for the major part of the first twenty minutes of the ride, but then he comes to stand next to her at the front as the bus engages on a very packed Tower Bridge – she almost rectifies Flash who's calling it the London Bridge on his live-stream, but that would be useless so she refrains herself.

"I don't like this. Something's definitely up," she tells Ned, and he smiles conspiratorially at her.

"You're an FOS now. '_Friend of Spider-Man_'," he adds when she looks at him with her eyebrow raised. "And you have to remember, just stay calm."

_Easier said than done._ MJ sighs, she really wishes she could be as calm as she perceives Ned is right now, but she can't. She's not the stressful type, she's not easily scared, or worried, or anything for that matter, but she really does have a bad feeling about all this. It doesn't help that Peter's been gone for almost 12 hours now and hasn't been in touch _at all_.

Where can this idiot be? Can't he text or something? Uhhhh.

She's proven right a few seconds later. Thunder rolls, they turn to their left, and watch as definitely _not_ natural clouds gather on top of some building across the Thames. "That doesn't look good."

"But it's fake," Ned reminds her with a nervous chuckle, "so there's nothing to worry about."

But the water and fire monsters destroying everything weren't that fake, the appearance of the monsters was fake yes, but the destruction, that was _very_ real. She's witnessed it first hand. The dark fumes are gathering, closer and closer to the bridge, and MJ's heart is pounding in her chest. There's thunder and lightning above them. They need to get out of here. _Now._

* * *

_A special welcome to all the new subscribers, I'm very pleased with all the attention this fic is getting, it warms my heart, and you know what would warm it enough to hold on for the rest of winter? MORE COMMENTS!_

_Please, don't be shy, tell me what you liked in this chapter, what you didn't like, what you ate last week, talk to me I swear I don't bite. There are no required number of characters or whatever, I don't care if your grammar is approximative, I'm not even a native speaker I'm sure my grammar is sometimes wonky, so I REALLY don't care!_  
_But I do care a LOT about hearing what you guys think, it is the best feeling ever, and the one reward I enjoy the most for all the dedicated work I do on this. So yeah, comment people, plus it will definitely encourage me to write the next chapter faster so it's a win-win, don't you think? ;)_  
_Until next time!_


	11. Chapter 11

_Helloooooo,_  
_The beginning of this chapter was a bit difficult for me to write, with all the action and stuff, it would have been easier in French but eh! If you feel like it's a little wonky I suggest watching the movie again, they do a much better job than me LOL xD_  
_And then one of my favorite scene of the movie finally ahhhhhhh_  
_Hope you enjoy this, see you at the end! :D_

* * *

67% sure

The next few minutes are an absolute blur. Lightning and deep rumble and harsh cold wind hitting her face. Fear gripping her heart and people screaming in terror. Mr Harrington goes downstairs to ask the driver if it's safe to stay up there or not – pretty '_duh_' moment if you ask her, even for him – and when he comes back and tells them the bus driver is gone, MJ's mind goes completely blank. She instinctively reaches for her backpack down by her feet, not paying a lot of attention to what Mr Harrington and Mr Dell are currently arguing about.

She can barely think straight as her hair is flying across her face, whipping her cheeks and her neck. She is lost and scared, and it petrifies her. It absolutely sucks. Then Mr Dell's voice brings her back to the harsh reality. "Oh, the witches are back!"

And he's definitely not very smart for a man of science teaching Physics at one of the finest high school of NY, but he's right. MJ knows that it's no witches at all though, she knows _exactly_ what it actually is. She's always thought that understanding how something works always made it less scary, like knowing that the raptors in Jurassic Park 1 were actually guys in costumes. Makes it a lot less terrifying, especially as a kid. But apparently this doesn't work with drone armies trying to kill you and destroy half of Europe.

She doesn't let herself over-analyze everything. Three giant water tornadoes erupt around the bridge and Mr Harrington yells to get off the bus, and so that's what she does. She follows Ned and Betty and the others, and she's the last one to step off the double-Decker. She stumbles for a few steps, and out of nowhere lightning strikes and then the bus is hauled off the road and into the air, and in seconds it's exploding and MJ's heart jumps so hard in her chest she's pretty sure it's gonna stay stuck in her throat for the rest of her life – doesn't look like the rest of her life is going to be very long anyway.

In the terror and confusion she grabs Ned's arm and just runs. They sprint in between cars behind the rest of the class, everyone is screaming and rushing away from the bridge that seems to be the epicenter of the storm/monster/drone attack. They reach a flight of stairs and Mr Harrington doesn't hesitate. They go down and make their way towards what MJ recognizes as the tower of London. They run for another ten seconds and then for some reason they all stop and look back towards the bridge.

The monster is a hundred times bigger than the previous ones. It's seemingly made of rocks and fire and water and dark smoke, like Mr Dell stupidly points out. "Earth, wind, fire, water, oh no, they've joined forces like the Power Rangers!" And then he's arguing again with Mr Harrington, and then Brad exclaims out of nowhere:

"Hey look, it's Mysterio, he's gonna save us!"

And that's when it strikes her. Weird how the attack started exactly where _they_ were on the bridge. How _their_ bus was the first target. "Wait, if Mysterio knows we know…" her voice trails off, and she meets Ned's terrified gaze.

"Then we're in danger."

"Yeah, and so are they," she says, nodding to their classmates who are cheering for Mysterio. "We should go." So Betty, Ned and her start running again, leaving the others behind. They follow other people who are fleeing from the scene, and then the screams change and MJ slows down enough to look back towards the Tower Bridge. She notices from the side of her eye that Flash followed them – still live-streaming everything, this one's going to be a hit –, but most of all that the illusion of the monster broke off and that the drones are now visible. She feels her heart clench in her chest with something akin to _hope_.

_Please, let it be __thanks to __Peter._

She's too far from the bridge, and there are too many drones, to try and spot him anywhere, but she allows herself to hope. Then she tears her eyes off the bridge and looks up front again, just in time to watch as a small airplane lands on the large esplanade before them. "What the –" They don't stop though, because stopping would probably be suicidal right now.

They've almost reached the thing when a man with gray hair and a goatee almost runs into them, and for some reason, Ned seems to know him. "Happy!" he exclaims, and the four of them stop in front of the guy.

"I gotta get you guys out of here," the man – Happy? Is that his _name_? – says hastily, pointing to the airplane behind him.

"Who are you?" MJ retorts, lost.

"I work with Spider-Man okay? You gotta get on that jet."

MJ's heart bungee jumps inside her chest. _I work with Spider-Man_. Peter is around here somewhere. He's here, fighting Mysterio. He's back. Next to her, Flash lowers his phone, eyes as wide as she's ever seen them, and squeals: "You work for _Spider-Man_?"

"I work _with_ Spider-Man," the man retorts, clearly annoyed, "not _for_ Spider-Man." But then a couple of drones fire at the jet and the thing explodes – what is it with bad guys and explosion, _jeez_ – and they start running again. "New plan, into the tower!" And then as they run, he reaches for his ear and says something else. "Yeah we're okay, just go get Beck!"

For a split second MJ is lost, not sure to understand why he said that, and then it strikes her: he's probably talking to Peter. Her eyes feel like they're burning, and for a quick moment she thinks she's about to burst into tears, but luckily she doesn't. She keeps running for her life, pretty sure now that Mysterio is after them because he _knows_ they know. And she's _not_ going to let him get her before she sees Peter again. _No. Freaking. Way_. She's not _done_ with him.

They get inside the Crown Jewels exhibition and the drone following them is at their heels. Happy screams at them to get inside the vault which is, MJ knows, one of the most secured room of the world, and they're almost there, and then the drone starts shooting. Time goes by in a blur after that, a mix of glass shattering and deafening sounds all around her, and then Happy screams "Take cover!" and so she does. She hides behind a column, and then the shooting stops and silence arises, overwhelming as hell, and she holds her breath, terrified. This is a nightmare.

But it's not. It's all real. And she's not going to stand there and _wait_ for the drone to find them. Because it will, because it's what Mysterio wants, and because she's _not _in some stupid movie being the stupid hero's love interest waiting for him to save her. This is not who she is. This is _not_ who she wants to be.

There's a mace in front of her, held by one of those decorative armor guy or whatever. Leave the specifics for another time. She can do this. She meets Happy's gaze and he puts his finger on his lips, begging her to keep quiet. But this is not going to work. The drone's eventually gonna find them and kill them. And that's not the last item on her to-do list _at all_. "I got this," she mouths, and Happy shakes his head vehemently at her, but she ignores him. She grabs the weapon with two hands and takes it off the armor's grip. It's a lot heavier than she thought but she manages to prevent it from hitting the ground. Close one though. She takes another deep breath. Now what?

She meets Ned's gaze on the other side of the room and he silently answers her question. He and Betty use a spear to bring down another armor as a diversion. The drone immediately starts shooting at the thing and MJ jumps out of her hiding spot, hitting it with her mace as hard as she can. "GO!" she yells, and they all scramble towards the vault's door at the far end of the room. The drone is still shooting but none of them gets hurt and they all make it safely inside the vault. Happy and Flash close the huge doors and for half a second they think they're safe.

"I'm here, I'm here!" Happy says, pressing his earpiece again, and MJ takes a shaky breath. "I bought us some time… but not much." The drone must be equipped with a laser or something because it's starting to drill through the doors.

_Alright_, MJ thinks. She's done her part. Now it's Peter's turn. Just kick the bad guy's ass and be done with it already. Not like she can do much from here anyway. She trusts Peter. She absolutely does. She's still gripping her mace, her hands sweaty and shaky on its shaft. The drone is cutting through the metal doors like they're made of butter, and slowly, surely, her confidence wavers. Her eyes sting and her heart is pounding against her ribs.

"Are we gonna die?" Ned stammers, and she can feel him trembling next to her.

"Nobody dies on my watch," Happy retorts, but at the same moment the whole room vibrates, like something really strong just hits the doors.

"I wasted my life playing video games and we're gonna die," Ned whimpers.

Then it's Betty's time to say her last words. Apparently that's a thing. It makes sense to MJ, although she feels very annoyed at herself and everyone else for it. "I have a fake ID, and I've never even used it." Another hit, the doors are barely holding anymore.

Flash's turn. He's surprisingly self-aware for the first time ever. "I post stupid videos daily for people to like me," he cries out, and MJ makes a face. _True dat_.

"Hey," Happy cuts him, "if it weren't for those stupid videos, Spider-Man would've never found you."

"Spider-Man– Spider-Man follows me?" the idiot repeats, clearly over the moon, "I saved us guys!"

And that's too much for MJ. "If you saved us then why are we about to die?!" she snaps at him, and then everyone is yelling at her, and she barely hears anything because of another blow on the doors, and she's pretty sure now that the next one is going to be the last. "I'm sorry, okay? It's just, I'm obsessed with telling the truth even if it hurts other people's feelings." Except for that one time where she lied and probably did end up hurting someone's feelings. She can't believe she's not gonna be able to rectify any of this. BOOM. Guess she was wrong, that hit wasn't the last one.

"I'm in love with Spider-Man's aunt." There's a floating moment of silence as they all stare in disbelief at Happy. The man looks at them, raising his hands in front of him, and mumbles: "We're sharing right?"

MJ can't help herself. Who wouldn't be in love with May, to be honest? The doors are holding longer than she would have given them credit for. That's not very reassuring though. They're still about to die. Two more hits. Then a large portion of the doors falls to the ground with a deafening bang, revealing four drones about to riddle them with bullets. MJ cowers next to Ned, a single tear running down her left cheek. This is it.

Except it's not. The drones stop, and then they're not moving at all for so long that it becomes very confusing. Then she meets Happy's eyes and somehow she knows. Peter's back there. He's fighting Mysterio. Somehow he did something that stopped the drones. Happy seems to have reached the same conclusion. As the others start babbling, wondering what the hell just happened and why they're not dead, the man walks to her and reaches inside the pocket of his jacket.

"Here," he says. She holds one of her hand out, the other still holding her mace, and he drops something light in it. "_He_ told me to give you this."

She doesn't have to ask who did. She looks down, and has to blink tears away as she realizes what it is. It's a necklace. And it's broken in a few places, but she recognizes it nonetheless. It's a black Dahlia necklace. She could cry right about now, but she doesn't. She slightly nods to Happy and slides the necklace in the back pocket of her jeans. She just wants to be with him, hold him in her arms and make sure he's safe. Which is dumb, because _he_'s the one with the super-powers who's already saved the world once before, and is probably doing it _again_. But that's still how she feels at that very moment. Doesn't matter if she's just a normal girl with a mace and _he_'s the super-hero.

And that's when the drones leave. They fly away and out of the room like nothing, and she lets out a shaky breath. They slowly walk out of the vault after a good thirty seconds of hesitation, and then there's nothing else in her mind but one name.

_Peter._

She runs. The mace is heavy in her right hand, her heart is beating furiously in her chest and her legs feel weak and like they're made of gummy bears or something, but she doesn't care. She gets out of the Crown Jewels exhibition, winces as the daylight hits her, and runs. Across the plaza, down the stairs, under the bridge, along the waterside, up the stairs again. The Tower Bridge looks like a battlefield. _Is_ a battlefield. Cars overturned and burning, destroyed drones all over the place. She spots him before he does. She feels like her heart is about to burst with relief.

He's limping. He's hurt. He's _alive_.

He spots her and says her name, she drops her mace and runs to him without a second thought. She collides with him and wraps her arms around his shoulders with a shaky sigh, and he hugs her back instantly, and she thinks she could cry just now. She doesn't. "Are you okay?" she whispers, voice quivering.

"I'm okay," Peter nods breathlessly, "are you okay?" She says she is, and he asks about the others, of course he does, and it's actually insane how _alive_ she feels right now, pressed against him, her face nestled against the side of his neck. She tells him everyone else is okay too, and he lets out a shaky sigh of relief, his whole body relaxing against hers. She can physically feel the relief washing over him, and it makes her heart do funny things inside her chest. "What happened?" he asks her quietly, and oh how much she missed that stupid altruistic boy.

"Th-there was just the drones, and they were following us, and th-th-then they just stopped," she stammers, "was that you?"

"Yeah," he nods, and they finally break their embrace to look at each other. She suddenly feels very cold and lost without him against her, but she ignores the pesky, disorientating feeling, focusing instead on what seems urgent at that very moment.

"Did you get him?"

There is dry blood under his nose, a bruise on his left cheek, a cut on his right one, and his lower lip is split. But his eyes are the ones that really show how much all this hurt him. He nods quietly, and she's pretty sure she would have felt his pain from miles away. "Yeah."

It's a relief, the bad guy has been dealt with, but obviously Peter hasn't been left unscathed. She couldn't help him then, but maybe she can _now_. "Well I um, brought that," she says lightly, pointing to the abandoned mace on the road, "in case you needed some help." She lets out a nervous laugh and he does too, before thanking her, of course, this idiot is just so _nice_ and _polite_. But he's not looking at her anymore, and she can't stand watching him be this miserable. She has no idea what happened between Mysterio and him, but she is _not_ going to let him be depressed over some stupid asshole. "Anyway, uh, there's this sweaty guy, in the tower with us, I think he like works for you or something…" her voice trails off as she takes the necklace out of her backpocket and shows it to him. "He um, he gave me this."

"Oh no," Peter says with a raspy voice, cupping her hands with his to take a look at the broken necklace. She looks up at him, watching his expression closely, and he looks disappointed and sad, and her heart is pounding almost painfully in her chest as he starts rambling just like Peter Parker always does: "Oh MJ I'm so sorry I had this plan, this stupid plan, I wrote it all down and I was gonna buy you this and give it to you in Paris at the top –"

She's very grateful for the spontaneous side of herself at that very specific moment. She doesn't let him finish his rambling, she knows he would probably never stop anyway. She takes a step forward, closes her eyes, and presses her lips on his. And her heart is so far gone she's pretty sure she's in cardiac arrest, and her shoulders feel so light she's almost scared she's going to float away in the sky and never come back down. It only lasts for half a second before she backs up, lower lip trembling just a little, and Peter blinks and looks at her in awe with his big brown puppy eyes. She smiles sheepishly at him, the ghost of their kiss heavy and so freakingly _amazing_ on her lips. She cannot believe she just did that. Or she cannot believe how long it took her to actually get _there_.

"And you kissed me…" he says, clearly astonished, and she lets out a small, nervous chuckle at that. "What-why…"

This is it. She looks down at the black Dahlia necklace he bought for her, taking a deep breath to help the words out of her mouth. "I don't really have much luck when it comes to getting close to people…" she starts, a hard lump forming in her throat as she speaks. She tries to swallow it away and fails. "So I lied. I wasn't just watching you 'cause I thought you were Spider-Man."

He's staring at her, and then he's letting out a breathy laugh and a '_That's great_' that has her heart do multiple back flips in her chest. She smiles and he smiles timidly back, and she really wants to kiss him again suddenly but she thinks to herself she really ought to point something out before. "Black Dahlia like…"

"The murder, yeah," Peter says at the same time, and they smile at each other again before she looks down at the necklace, a little overwhelmed at how he's looking at her now. When she looks up he looks down, and she feels like they're back at the beginning of the trip where the both of them were peaking at each other all the time and poorly hiding it. Sometimes, being a teenager is so _dumb_. "I'm sorry it's broken," he tells her, nodding at the necklace.

"I actually like it better broken," she tells him with a soft smile.

He nods, and then: "I really like you."

She smiles again, looking down for a split second before meeting his sweet gaze again, and she says quietly, heart pounding happily in her chest: "I really like you too."

And they're smiling at each other, and somehow with these assertions they agree on kissing again, and their lips meet halfway for just a split second. They look at each other for another second, and MJ wonders if he's as happy as she feels right now. It's _cliché_, she feels dumb, but this feels so good and so right she doesn't care at all.

Then Peter takes a step closer and they kiss again, and this time it lasts long enough for her to notice his lips taste a little salty, and how soft and warm and _amazing_ they feel against hers. Her hand instinctively goes up to the back of his neck, fiddling with his soft hair, and his gloved hand gently grabs her upper arm, and she feels like she's melting into his touch. It doesn't last nearly half as long as she wishes it did, but she figures maybe that's okay for now. She takes half a step back, and once again the ghost of his lips is still on hers as she smiles sheepishly at him. "Um, okay, I should um, I should probably get back to the class."

"I'll go and," he starts, then hesitates, "yeah, I don't know."

"Okay," she nods with a chuckle, because right, that's something he definitely needs to figure out. She walks a few steps backwards, then grabs the mace from the ground and says: "Just in case." The sweet smile he gives her might have become her new favorite. She starts walking, glancing one last time at him without even bothering to hide the huge smile on her lips. To hell with appearances. She just kissed Peter Parker. He said he likes her. They _kissed_, three times. _Three_ _separate_ _times_. Insane. She feels very dumb but she does it anyway, brushing her fingers across her lips where she can _still_ feel _his_ lips.

Holy crap this is unreal. She can't help the slight skip in her step, nor the stupid smile on her face as she makes her way back to her class. She manages to wipe her grin off before she gets there though, luckily. She also drops her faithful mace next to one of the entrances to the Tower of London, thinking it would probably look alarming to her teachers.

They're all standing at the same spot Mr Harrington and the others stopped to watch the fight – terrible sense of self-preservation if you ask her. Ned, Betty and Flash are there, too. Everyone looks okay. Mr Harrington and Mr Dell are taking calls to try and organize things. Her classmates all talking at the same time about the events, not even listening to each other. Apparently nobody realized she wasn't there before because they don't ask her anything. Except for Ned, who silently walks up to her and whispers:

"How is he?"

And she can't help it, and she hates herself for that, but she _blushes_. Hopefully Ned doesn't see it, otherwise this is bad. "He's um, he's fine, he's figuring out what to do to get back home."

"Oh, well that's a relief," Ned sighs, and he seems genuinely happy. Ned is a good friend. "You see, no need to worry, everything's fine. Told you how good he was."

She thinks back to their last kiss, how _good_ it was indeed, and kicks herself mentally because now it feels like her ears are burning. She nods, clearing her throat and scratching her forehead to hide her face, but luckily Ned seems oblivious to everything. Then Betty walks to them and hugs her, and MJ stands there awkwardly, not really sure how to react. "MJ I'm so glad you're okay," she tells her, and she can hear in her voice that she's probably been crying, which she absolutely gets. She's pretty sure the second she's going to find herself alone, all the stress and fear and exhaustion will get the better of her. "Where did you run off to?"

Crap. "Oh, um, I uh, I had to make sure that uh –"

Luckily for her though, Mr Harrington comes to her rescue and asks for everyone's attention. "Alright, I've called the tour company, tonight's flight is canceled because of well, everything, but they've managed to book us another flight tomorrow morning. They've booked us rooms for the night as well so that's –" He's cut by the ringtone of his phone, so he excuses himself and answers it.

MJ turns to Ned as he fishes his own phone out of his pocket. "Hey, it's Peter!" he says, and she looks over his shoulder to read the text he's just received.

_Got May to call Mr H. and tell him I'll be meeting with you guys later tonight. _

_Should be talking to her right about now. See you then GitC._

"GitC?" she asks, frowning, and Ned gives her a superior look as he answers Peter's text with an endless string of various excited emojis.

"Guy in the Chair, that's me, I'm his guy in the chair," he tells her pompously when he's done. "Don't worry, we'll get you a code name as well."

She purses her lips to hide her smirk, and that's when a text chimes in from her own phone. She gets it out of her backpack, remembering she still has some of Peter's clothes in it – she should have given them to him on the bridge, why didn't she think about that, or right, because she was too busy _kissing_ the idiot – unlocks it and reads the text. She can't help a smile to waver on her lips as she does, and her brain to completely freeze on the stupidest detail _ever_.

_Hey, it's Peter. I'll see you in a couple of hours, everything's good._

She has Peter Parker's cellphone number. She can _text_ him. They're going to spend one more night in Europe and he's gonna _be there_. And he wants to _see her_. This is all good. All fine, amazing, not nerve-wracking at all. "Focus," she enjoins herself mentally, trying to think about a good answer. It takes her a lot longer than she'd ever admit.

_Cool. I have some of your clothes in my backpack,_

_just in case you don't want to meet up in your suit ;)_

Winky face or no winky face, she doesn't have the time to really ponder about it because she accidentally press sent like a freaking idiot, and then the next few minutes are excruciating, waiting for him to answer.

_That'd be awesome yeah, thanks :)_

_How do we do this?_

She smiles to the screen of her phone, thinking how practical this dork is, heart swelling in her chest for some reason. She can't believe this is actually happening. That's when Betty nudges her and she meets her curious gaze with surprise. "Who are you texting like this?" her friend asks her and this time as she blushes again, she knows that, unlike Ned, Betty actually notices it.

"I uh… um, Peter?" she hesitates, and Betty grins somehow triumphantly.

"Are you two _finally_ a thing?" she says enthusiastically, and MJ wishes she'd be somewhere else entirely. She just vaguely shrugs and Betty lets out another pleased '_finally'_ that has MJ clench her teeth, very uncomfortable with the turn this conversation is taking. She doesn't need anyone to remind her how long she's been waiting for this to happen. She's very aware of it.

Her phone chimes again and she nods to it and distances herself from Betty to escape her annoying knowing look and read Peter's text in peace. This has been positively mortifying. Peter's new text is simple and goes straight to the chase, and it makes her heart do funny things in her chest again. She still can't believe this is happening for real.

_There's a Starbucks not far from where you guys are,_

_Meet me behind it in ten minutes?_

* * *

_As always, thanks for reading, next chapter is the last one so be sure to comment on what your favorite part has been so far! :D_


	12. Chapter 12

_Oh my God guys, this is it! Last chapter!_

_Hope you enjoy it, I'll see you one last time at the end! _

* * *

67% sure

It doesn't take much convincing from her part to get everyone to go to the Starbucks Peter mentioned. Despite the fact that the entire elemental/drones/Mysterio thing happened like, ten yards from there, the coffee shop is still open, and filled with curious people trying to figure out what happened exactly. She waits for the others to place their orders and when they start going upstairs to sit, MJ discreetly sneaks out again, wondering where exactly Peter is hiding. She ponders for a moment, then chooses to go right – on her left is the waterfront, with restaurants and benches, a very opened space so not a good place to hide in a Spidey suit waiting for a change of clothes.

There's a passage under the building on her left, it's rather dark and empty except for two parked cars ignoring the 'STRICTLY NO PARKING' sign. She ventures there quietly, heart beating steadily in her chest but hands clenched on the straps of her backpack. She hates it, but she is kind of nervous. She doesn't spot him anywhere, so she checks her phone to see if he sent her another text – he didn't. "Peter?" she whispers, counting on his super-hearing to do its job.

It does. "Psst, up here."

MJ looks up, and spots the idiot's apparently very satisfied face above her. He's crouching on a small ledge, behind what looks like the AC installation of the hotel located above the Starbucks. She raises her eyebrows at him and scoffs. "Well that's good and everything, but how do you expect me to get up there?" she mutters.

His smirk sends shivers down her back, for some reason. "Can I?" he asks, and she nods even though she has no idea what he's asking permission for. He stands up and stills for a few seconds, and she takes this opportunity to look around and make sure nobody's in the close proximity or susceptible to see them. Next thing she knows she's hauled up in the air, flying for half a second before her feet gently touch the ground again. Peter swiftly grabs her arm to help her regain her balance and she stares at him in shock as he detaches from her shirt the web he used to hoist her up next to him.

"Hi," he tells her, and then unexpectedly kisses her on the cheek. She just stands there, her skin burning where his lips touched her, and he chuckles nervously at her silence. "Happy had some spare webs with him," he says, and she nods once again even though she has no idea what he's talking about.

The ledge they're standing on is larger then she thought it was, almost like a small covered balcony of some sorts. It makes them completely invisible from the streets which is exactly what Peter needs. There's a maintenance door at the far left, but it's covered in cobwebs – _real_ ones, well, ones made by real _spiders_ – so it doesn't look like it's been opened recently. Peter lets go of her arm and takes a couple of steps back. She looks at him and meets his nervous gaze. "Sorry," she says quietly, clearing her throat. "You kind of took me by surprise here." She's not entirely sure if she's talking about him hauling her up thanks to one of his webs, or him kissing her on the cheek. All this is just _very_ confusing.

He takes it as the first one and pouts like the cute _dork_ he is. "I asked you first."

"Yeah, well I had no idea what you were saying."

"But you said yes?" he says, apparently confused, and she just shrugs, looking down at her feet. There's a beat, and then he asks uneasily: "So um, you guys okay?"

"Yes," she nods, a little too fast, and she curses herself – _why is this so weird?!_ "Yeah, everyone's fine. It didn't um, it didn't take much convincing to get them to go to Starbucks. Mr Harrington says we're waiting for the hotel to call us when our rooms are ready so… yeah." She's rambling. Why is she rambling? She discreetly wipes her sweaty hands on the side of her pants. Her mouth on the other hand is extremely dry, and she hates it. Why is she so stressed out? She kind of knows why, but she also kind of wants to play dumb because she doesn't like it one bit.

"Right, yeah," Peter says, clearing his throat too – ah great, now he's getting weird too, they're just the worse, aren't they? "I figured I could um, meet you guys there."

"Yeah okay, awesome." She mentally face-palms. This is a disaster. There's an awkward silence as they avoid each other's eyes while simultaneously trying to stare at each other too, then MJ remembers why she's here in the first place. She takes her backpack off and opens it. "Anyway um, here's some clothes." She hands them to him and he thanks her profusely like he always does when anyone does something remotely nice. There's another awkward silence, and she watches as Peter shifts his weight on one foot then on the other.

"Um, I'm gonna change now," he tells her timidly, and she feels her cheeks blushing instantly, eyes wide open.

"_Oh. _Yes, yeah, sorry I'll just –" She gestures a little wildly, hating her nerves deeply for it, then turns around to face the blank concrete wall.

"Yeah, okay," he chuckles nervously, and she almost wants to slam her own forehead on the wall for being so _dumb_. She hears the ruffling of clothes, wonders how he gets out of this very skinny suit, lingers a little on the thought that it's the second time in two days Peter Parker is undressing behind her. Then something strikes her.

"Crap, I don't have any shoes for you though," she tells him.

"That's alright," he says, his voice a little muffled, and she guesses he's probably putting his t-shirt on while speaking. _Goodbye, abs._ "Happy got me some."

"Oh, cool."

She doesn't seem to know what to do with her arms and stands there awkwardly, staring at the gray wall like it's one of the most interesting thing she's ever seen. Then there's a light pat on her left shoulder and she turns to face Peter. His hair is messy, his face clean, there's no sign of a cut on his lower lip anymore. With his nerdy t-shirt, his hoodie and his jeans, he looks like a perfect rendition of her favorite Queens dork. To think this guy is Spider-Man. This is _not_ getting old. "Hey," he tells her, and she just stares, scared of not making any sense if she tries to speak. He hands her his crumpled suit and she puts it in her backpack without thinking. "Here, it's a little, well, _a lot_ ruined, but um…"

"Don't worry, I'll keep it safe," she nods, and he smiles a sweet thing that has her heart jump in her chest once again.

"Thanks."

There's another silence, and after a while staring at each other, she feels like she absolutely needs to break it otherwise she's in serious trouble. "It's my, um, it's my favorite."

"What?" Peter says, confused, and she awkwardly points at his t-shirt, mouth exceptionally dry.

"Your, your t-shirt, it's my um, it's my favorite one you've got."

"Oh," he says, looking down at his Telekinesis t-shirt with the beginning of a smile on his lips. "Really?" She just nods shyly, and wow, he's just so close right now she even notices the bruise on his left cheek is not entirely healed. She wonders what his healing factor is compared to a normal human. She wonders if he's ever tested it out or not.

But then he's kissing her, and she's kissing him back instantly, and she forgets pretty much everything. It's dumb, and she feels like a stupid rom-com teenager for it, but somehow kissing him feels natural and just like she's _home_. It's amazing, feeling his lips moving with hers, and then his tongue timidly meeting _her_ tongue and sending never ending shivers down her spine. She has no idea for how long they kiss like this, but at some point her hazy brain figures they've crossed the limit between kissing and full-on making out. She can't believe this is happening to her. She lost count of how many kisses they shared so far, which is kind of a bummer because she loves quantifying, but hey, she's not complaining.

"_Does this, as Gimli would say, only counts as one?"_ the nerd in her wonders, and then: "_Oh my god, just shut _up_."_

She's dropped her backpack at some point without even realizing it, and now her arms are wrapped around his shoulders, fingers playing with the soft hair on the back of his neck. _His_ hands are on her waist, and she feels like she's melting into his touch, which is definitely trouble. She breaks the kiss off, catching her breath, blinking a couple of times to try and come back to reality. Peter leans his forehead on hers and she shivers despite herself at how amazing this feels too.

MJ clears her throat, and they share a shy glance and a smile before breaking off their embrace. Peter takes half a step back, and she kind of misses his proximity already, although she is thankful for it because _wow_. "I should um, I should probably go," she tells him quietly, and he raises a hand to scratch the back of his neck with a nervous chuckle.

"Right, yes, of course, sorry."

"Don't apologize, _dork_," she smirks, and the fond look he gives her at that warms her entire self. It's very difficult not to kiss him again because of it, but she's proud of herself for not giving into the temptation. Damn this idiot and his amazing kisses. He's got her all confused. "See ya later?" she asks for good measure.

"Definitely," Peter nods very seriously, and she curses him once again as her heart does another back flip in her chest. She hides it by grabbing her backpack and zipping it closed. She puts it on, ignoring the look he's giving her because damn these puppy eyes of his. But then she remembers where they are and she makes a face.

"Um, so how do you want to do this?" she says, pointing to the street below and raising an interrogative eyebrow at him.

"Do you trust me?" he retorts, extending his hand to her, palm up, and she gets a weird impression of déjà-vu for half a second before she remembers exactly where she's seen this before.

"Yeah I trust you, _Aladdin_," she snorts, and his eyes widen at that, "although I guess you're more like Tarzan really."

His disgruntled face is _everything_. "Come on MJ, you're ruining this," he complains, but his sweet eyes are shining with laughter. She takes his hand, and he pulls her to him, wrapping an arm around her waist. She is very aware of how it feels to be pressed against his side, and somehow part of her is like _'__Mayday, mayday'_ while another just relishes in it just because _wow_. "Hold on to me," he tells her, his stupid face way too close to hers for her own good.

_Hell yeah._ She wraps her arms around his shoulders and then before another thought comes crashing they're flying for a half second, then landing back on the ground, between a fire exit and a red telephone booth. Peter chuckles at the probably shocked face she's making right now, and she nudges him with a fake mumble that isn't fooling anyone.

"We should definitely go for a swing together when we get home," he says enthusiastically and she smirks.

"Okay," she simply nods, and his happy smile makes her heart jump.

"Awesome." They stare at each other for a moment, and MJ kind of wishes she could just stay with him until further notice, but the others are probably getting suspicious – although, that's not a sure thing, because these guys are not the brightest and clearly not the most observant people at all. They've probably not even noticed she's gone. One of the perks of being the snarky loner, no one really pays attention to you.

"Alright, now I really have to go," she tells him after a while, and without even meaning it her smile turns apologetic, which is dumb. Peter seems to like it though, because he blushes and looks down at his feet, before giving her another big Parker smile. What a cute dork.

"Right, yes, off you go!"

She smirks, hesitates for a second, and then goes for it. She plants a soft kiss on his lips before almost running away, barely looking back because her cheeks feel like they're burning for some reason. He's watching her go though, she can feel it, and it makes her heart pound in her chest. She goes back inside the Starbucks and orders herself a chocolate chip cookie and a Frappuccino – she's feeling confident and adventurous, okay? Besides, she swore an oath to never drink coffee again, or you know at least not until she gets back home. Then she finds the others upstairs, sipping their drinks and still blabbering about the attack.

She sits at a table like nothing, and she almost makes it without anyone really realizing she wasn't there before. Almost.

"Hey, where have you been?" Betty says, sitting next to her, looking at her pointedly.

"Um, bathroom?" Oops, wrong inflection. It's never gonna do it, isn't it?

"You're so obviously lying it's disappointing," she retorts and MJ makes a face.

"Alright," she sighs, fiddling with her straw, "I was uh, I was on the phone with Peter."

"Yes! _That_'s more like it," Betty exclaims triumphantly. "Sooooo?"

"What," MJ plays dumb, and her friend rolls her eyes.

"Well, tell me more!"

Oh how she hates this. _Let's get this over with_. She can't really tell her the truth but she can probably disguise it a little, just enough to satisfy her need for gossip and then she'll leave her alone. Hopefully. "Well um, there's nothing much to say really, we just, we kinda kissed in Prague and then –"

"_Kinda_ kissed?"

"And then," she repeats louder, ignoring Betty's pout, "he had to leave for Berlin, but um, now he's coming back tonight to leave with us tomorrow so, yeah. That's pretty much it I guess."

"That won't do," Betty retorts with a smirk, "Who initiated it?"

"Who initiated what?" Ned chimes in curiously, sitting next to Betty, and MJ slams her head on the table in front of her, exasperated – and mortified. This is a nightmare.

Luckily though, Mr Harrington calls out for their attention and tells them the hotel just called. They gather their things and leave, and MJ manages to avoid both Ned _and_ Betty the entire trip to the hotel, which is near Heathrow Airport so it takes them a while to get there. When they finally do make it there, Peter is waiting for them at the front desk. "Hey guys," he says like a dork when he sees them, and for some reason MJ stops thinking.

She walks to him and pulls him into a hug, and he hugs her back instantly, although a little hesitantly. She can hear the others chuckling and commenting behind her but she doesn't care. Peter asks her if she's okay in a whisper, and she just nods, hiding her face in the crook of his neck, and he hugs her tighter. She's feeling worn out and exhausted, thinking it might be the aftershock of the whole situation or something. "You're okay," Peter tells her quietly, and she nods again, sniffling a little before stepping back and giving him a shy smile.

Later, after dinner – which consisted in ordering pizza and eating it all together in the common room – they spend a comfortable evening with Betty and Ned – and occasionally Flash, who obviously has a _lot _to say about what happened, especially to rub it in Peter's face because he wasn't there, which MJ finds very ironic. "How do you manage to deal with this idiot without punching him all the time?" she asks him in a whisper at some point, pretending to reach over him for her bottle of water on the side table. She shivers despite herself when she feels his lips barely grazing her right cheek. That was definitely unnecessary, and yet how can she be mad at him really.

"Honestly, I don't know," he admits with a small chuckle, and she smirks at him. That's when Flash storms out with a loud 'that's just unfair' that surprises them all for a second, before they start laughing because he really is just a diva sometimes. Most of the times.

It's almost midnight when Betty announces she's off to bed, and Ned shortly after leaves too. That only leaves Peter and MJ. They stare at each other for a long moment. She's curled up on his side, he's wrapped an arm around her, and this just feels so _nice._

"You okay?" he checks after a little while, his voice barely over a whisper.

"Yeah," she nods with a small smile, "what about you?"

"Eh, still a little sore because of the fight but," he says with a face, and she unconsciously lifts herself up not to press on his side so much, but he stops her instantly. "Please, stay."

She blushes at that, but she lays back on him all the same, heart pounding in her chest. He's probably hearing it, he's probably heard her stupid heart every time it beat abnormally fast in the past because she was next to him, and it's a little embarrassing, and at the same time why didn't he act upon it if he heard it? What an idiot. He must have thought she had a heart condition or something. That would be _so_ like Peter. She smiles to herself, pondering on whether to tease him about it or not, but that's when his free hand fly to her neckline, fingers grazing the black Dahlia necklace.

"You're wearing it," he notes quietly, and she just nods, incapable of uttering a word. They kiss a little after that – well, maybe not just a little – and then when it gets too late they stop and decide to head back to their rooms to get a not so good night of sleep because they're leaving in less than five hours. They'll sleep in the plane, Peter tells her, which makes her laugh for some reason. He walks her to her room and kisses her on the doorstep, and she thinks she's never going to sleep after that, but she actually does.

Waking up four hours later is an unpleasant experience, but she hangs onto the thought of spending eight hours beside Peter on the plane. While on the shuttle to get from the hotel to the airport, Peter tells her about the plan he had a week ago to try and sit next to her on the plane, how he bought a dual headphone adapter to watch movies with her the whole time, and how it evidently completely failed.

"You could have ended up with Harrington," she snorts, and Peter makes a face at that.

"Yeah, well Mr Harrington is very nice but I'm glad I didn't."

"And I'm glad it eventually worked out," MJ says after a while, looking down at her hands, because she's not really sure she's ready to meet his gaze after admitting this out loud. And somehow, he seems to get it. He doesn't say anything, but gently grabs her hand and doesn't let go of it until they pass through security. Check-in goes smoothly, pretty much all of them lost everything in the bus explosion so there's that.

They sit together on the plane, and end up sleeping for a good while, like Peter said. At one point she feels him stir in his sleep, and she realizes they moved while asleep so that Peter's head fell on her shoulders and she laid her head on top of his. He's moving away and she meets his sleepy gaze, and they smile at each other before he leans back into her, and it just feels _nice_. The eight-hour flight goes by fairly quickly. After their little nap they get some lunch, then they share a pair of earphone to watch a movie. "Such a shame I didn't get to actually use the dual headphone adapter I bought," Peter complains, and MJ just nudges him with a smirk. She herself kinda likes that they have to share, because that means she gets to snuggle into his side – but no way she's ever admitting _that_ though.

They get off the plane and it's almost noon in New York – while for them it's around 5 pm. She gets a text of her mom telling her they had a problem with the car and won't be able to pick her up, and it's just so unsurprising she doesn't even mention it to Peter. He'll probably offer to drive her back with his aunt, but she kind of needs to be alone right now. Plus, she's got something very important to do, too. She's not ready to show it to Peter. Maybe one day she will. Right now she doesn't feel like it though. And it's okay.

They say goodbye to each other, she reminds him of their date, and then she's off.

* * *

_July 3rd, 2024_

**I WAS RIGHT**

I'm just stopping by, this is the last entry this Spider-Parker notebook will ever get because get this, I was right all along. I'm just dropping my stuff at home, probably taking a shower too, definitely changing, and then I'm off again. On a date. With _him_. This is unreal, and yet? It also makes so much sense it's crazy.

That's a nice way to conclude things, isn't it? I think it is. I started this ages ago, and now I'm finally ending it because I got to the truth. It feels _amazing_.

Peter, if I'm nice enough one day to let you read this, DON'T say anything about the 'science trials', or I'll kick your spider-butt. You've been warned. Nerd.

THE END

* * *

_I'm super happy, I'm usually not very good at finishing stuff, but I STILL DID IT yay!_

_I want to thank you all for your support throughout this adventure, I'm thankful for each and everyone of you who subscribed and favorite and commented. You have no idea how much it means to me _  
_Please, take a moment to tell me what you think, what your favorite part was, or anything, it's always great to have feedback, even on finished fics!_


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